Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and his cronies are dead set on nullifying the U.S. Supreme Court’s momentous Bruen ruling. One of the stops they pulled out was to ban gun shows at the historic Orange County fairgrounds and other state facilities.
But legal challenges are mounting against the latest overreach by the Golden State.
In recent days, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) filed an amicus brief to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The group detailed its backing for the federal lawsuit against the ban on gun shows.
The case, B&L Productions v. Gavin Newsom, led to a lower court granting a preliminary injunction. The CCRKBA submission was joined by the Independence Institute and Greenlee Law, and it requested that the Ninth Circuit affirm the previous decision.
Perhaps a tall order, given the history of the Ninth in relation to gun rights issues. But the plaintiffs are undeterred.
CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb explained the brief examines the historical context of the state law. “We have detailed gun regulation in this country dating back to before the Revolutionary War, and our brief explains how the state has failed to provide a single Founding-era restriction on firearms commerce.”
Gottlieb added that California attorneys only presented 17th century laws prohibiting arms sales to “hostile foreign nations” along with a Dutch statute and a 1631 census law.
None of these examples the state grasped for, he explained, are relatable to the case before the Ninth Circuit.
Gottlieb further detailed efforts by state officials to skirt the law of the land.
“Gavin Newsom and other officials in Sacramento are determined to evade the Supreme Court ruling in Bruen, along with earlier high court doctrine secured by the Second Amendment. Their stubborn resistance to comply with the high court’s ruling in 2022 simply affirms what we have known all along. California’s one-party rulers are determined to cling to their power over citizens, no matter what the consequences to individual rights.”
The good news for the time being is that the people currently enjoy the right to attend a gun show as they had in the past. The iconic Crossroads of the West Gun Show reopened late last month at the fairgrounds in Costa Mesa before appreciative attendees.
The tradition had apparently ended when the last show shut down on Nov. 28, 2021. Senate Bill 264 and a second piece of legislation, Senate Bill 915, forced its closure when it took effect last year.
State Sen. Dave Min (D) of Irvine claimed such gun shows exploited a “legal loophole” in the law. He concluded that bad guys congregating at these gatherings employ straw sales or outright theft to obtain firearms and parts for unregistered “ghost guns.”
But the brakes were applied to this scheme last Oct. 30 when a federal judge issued the preliminary injunction. Both bills were overturned as the court determined that they did precious little to block access to firearms.
Instead, they appeared merely to attempt to “cancel” gun culture.
Utah-based Crossroads of the West brought the suit, asserting their constitutional rights of free association were infringed upon. U.S. District Court Judge John W. Holcomb agreed.
He ordered fairground operators to resume allowing the popular gun shows to appear. At least a temporary victory was won, and kudos to the CCRKBA for stepping up and throwing its weight behind protecting the Second Amendment.
