New Calif. Gun Law Tests 2nd Amendment's Limits

Under a new California law, state gun owners are barred from carrying firearms into churches, banks, public parks, amusement parks, zoos, museums, and other places the state has deemed "sensitive" — even if they have a concealed carry permit.

UCLA law professor Adam Winkler told NPR that, while it’s "hard to know whether any particular law will go before the Supreme Court," the one thing that is clear is that "any new gun law that lawmakers adopt will be challenged in court under the Second Amendment."

In the case of the new California law, the legal salvos already have begun. The law, which took effect this week, was blocked by a U.S. district judge last month, who called it "repugnant to the Second Amendment." Over the weekend, however, a federal appeals court temporarily stayed that ruling and allowed the law to proceed.

Winkler, the author of "Gunfight: the Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America," said that concealed carry permit holders can “carry guns in public generally.”

"But California has identified a list of 26 places that the law calls sensitive places, like playgrounds and public parks and museums, where you cannot bring your guns," he said. "What gun owners say, however, is that when you add up all the different 26 places that are deemed sensitive, effectively it's impossible for someone who has a permit to carry firearms to bring their guns anywhere."

He stressed that California is "really looking to the courts to provide some final guidance as to what kinds of gun laws we can have."

"California has been at the forefront of gun safety regulation for decades, but with the new strengthened protections for the Second Amendment coming from the U.S. Supreme Court, a lot of California's laws and innovations are open to question," he said. "Lawmakers really need the certainty that comes from better Supreme Court guidance on what kind of gun laws are allowed under the Second Amendment and what kind of gun laws are not."

Central to the issue, Winkler said, is the ambiguity surrounding the Supreme Court’s definition of "sensitive places." The justices must provide clarity, he said.

"The court has said that guns can be banned from sensitive places but hasn't made clear what makes a place sensitive and what are the exact places where lawmakers can restrict guns," he said.

Given the string of recent Supreme Court rulings on gun laws, Winkler said the district judge’s decision "was not wholly surprising."

"Under the Supreme Court's recent Second Amendment rulings, the court insists that a gun law today resemble the gun laws of the 17- and 1800s," he said. "And truth be told, we didn't have restrictions in the 17- and 1800s on guns in playgrounds or zoos or museums. As a result, applying this new test under the Second Amendment makes it very difficult to justify some of these restrictions on sensitive places that California has adopted."

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