Court rules California’s ban on open carry of firearms is unconstitutional
January 3, 2026
By KAREN VELIE
A federal appeals court on Friday ruled that California’s ban on the open carry of firearms in most public places is unconstitutional.
A panel of judges with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a gun owner in ruling that the state’s gun licensing laws that prohibit authorities from issuing permits to openly carry guns in counties with more than 200,000 people are unconstitutional. Those counties make up 95% of the state.
“It was clearly protected at the time of the Founding and at the time of the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment,” the judges wrote in their ruling. “There is no record of any law restricting open carry at the Founding, let alone a distinctly similar historical regulation.”
One of the three-judge panel, Judge N. Randy Smith, agreed the restrictions based on population was unconstitutional while partially dissented with the majority opinion.
“My colleagues got this case half right,” Smith wrote. “The majority opinion correctly holds that California’s open carry licensing scheme is facially constitutional under Bruen. However, my colleagues misread Bruen to prohibit California’s other restrictions on open carry.”
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