Rapper Dom Kennedy described Los Angeles’ gun control laws as “unconstitutional” and is suing the city after being arrested for carrying a gun for self-defense.
WestCoastStyles reports that “Kennedy and fellow plaintiff Garry Matthews are suing the City of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissions, and the LAPD” and the goal is “to invalidate restrictive gun laws in Los Angeles.”
WestCoastStyles adds:
Kennedy and Matthews are challenging the city, and its licensing scheme, claiming that it violates the Second and Fourteenth Amendments. Both men believe they were unjustly arrested in the past. Dom Kennedy and Matthews want the gun licensing scheme to be declared unconstitutional. They seek to have their arrests – and others like them – be ruled null and void.
Jovan Blacknell, the attorney for Kennedy and Matthews, explained his clients’ claims that the city demands a license in order to carry a gun for self-defense then refuses to issue said license, leaving concerned citizens with no option other than to carry without a license in order to be prepared to defend one’s own life.
Blacknell said:
The two key, undisputed facts in this case are that there were no actions that the Plaintiffs or the other class members could have taken during the relevant time period that would have allowed them to carry a handgun for general self-defense in the City of Los Angeles. (1) the City’s Police Chief refuses to issue CCWs for the lawful Second Amendment purpose of general self-defense; and (2) the City’s Police Chief vigorously enforces laws criminalizing carrying a handgun outside the home without a CCW.
He added: “By adopting and following a City policy of refusing to issue CCWs for general self-defense and then by adopting and following a City policy of strictly enforcing State laws prohibiting carrying a handgun outside the home without a CCW, the City violated their Second Amendment rights, and, in the case of Mr. Mathews and the Nonresident Class, the City violated their Fourteenth Amendment rights.”
California is the most heavily gun-controlled state in America. Mike Bloomberg-affiliated Everytown for Gun Safety ranks California number one for “Gun Law Strength.”
For example, California has universal background checks, an “assault weapons” ban, a “high capacity” magazine ban, a 10-day waiting period on gun purchases, a red flag law, gun registration requirements, a “good cause” requirement for concealed carry permit issuance, a ban on carrying a gun on a college campus for self-defense, a ban on K-12 teachers being armed on campus for classroom defense, a background check requirement for ammunition purchases, and a limit on the number of guns a law-abiding citizen can purchase in a given month, among other controls.
Despite those gun control measures, California’s major and mid-sized cities are gripped by one shooting after another — often gang and drug-related.
On May 9, 2022, Breitbart News noted that California Democrats are pushing an excise tax on handguns, rifles, ammunition, and gun parts. The tax would be an additional control on firearms, ammo, and gun parts, in the state of California.
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 and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.
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