Gun Rights Groups Secure Ruling Which Chips Away at CA Ban on Non-Resident Concealed Carry Permit Issuance

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett decided that California’s ban on concealed carry permits for non-residents fails standards set forth by Bruen (2022) and Rahimi (2024).

Therefore, Garnett, a Joe Biden appointee, issued an injunction against the ban.

The case is CRPA v. LASD, which focused on delays in permit issuance as well as on the prohibition against permit issuance to out-of-state residents.

Plaintiffs in the case included the California Rifle & Pistol Association (CRPA), Second Amendment Foundation, Gun Owners of America, and Gun Owners Foundation, as well as numerous private individuals.

Gun Owners Foundation highlighted portions of Garnett’s decision wherein she wrote, “Here, Plaintiffs have… demonstrated that the text of the Second Amendment likely applies to the first of its arguments, that non-residents have the right, like California residents, to apply to lawfully carry firearms for self-defense while in public.”

She added, “[T]he present issue is that nonresident Plaintiffs’ Second Amendment rights to lawfully carry firearms in public for self-defense are burdened—indeed, entirely barred—by California’s statute that allows only Californians to apply for CCW licenses.”

Garnett also pointed to Rahimi’s requirement that the defendants show that their gun control is “consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”

Garnett then observed, “The State has thus failed to demonstrate that it is likely that its residency requirement to apply for a CCW license is part of a historical tradition of this Nation.”

Kosta Moros, an attorney representing CRPA for Michel and Associates, noted:

CRPA has won an order confirming that the right to carry does not end at state lines, and California must at minimum allow nonresidents to apply for a CCW permit here. We’ve also confirmed that whatever “lengthy wait times” may mean, clearly 18 months is over that line.

Second Amendment Foundation founder and executive vice president Alan Gottlieb spoke to Breitbart News about the decision, saying, “This is a great ruling. Gun rights should not stop at a border.”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.