Ninth Circuit: Limiting Open Carry to Police, Security Guards Violates Second Amendment

A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Tuesday that restricting the open carry of firearms to police and security-related personnel infringes the Second Amendment.

Breitbart News reported that the ruling was handed down in an appeal of George Young’s suit against Hawaii. Young sued after being twice denied a license to carry a gun outside his home and a District Court sided with Hawaii. The Ninth Circuit’s three-judge panel sided with Young, noting that the “Second Amendment does protect a right to carry a firearm in public for self-defense.”

The majority opinion in the ruling was written by Ninth Circuit Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain, who said:

Restricting open carry to those whose job entails protecting life or property necessarily restricts open carry to a small and insulated subset of law-abiding citizens. Just as the Second Amendment does not protect a right to bear arms only in connection with a militia, it surely does not protect a right to bear arms only as a security guard. The typical, law-abiding citizen in the State of Hawaii is therefore entirely foreclosed from exercising the core Second Amendment right to bear arms for self-defense.

More here