Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
A federal judge in California has struck down a law that requires a 10-day waiting period for gun purchases, but only for current gun owners who have already passed a background check and those who have a permit or certificate of eligibility to own a gun.
Eastern District of California Judge Anthony W. Ishii said Monday that the waiting period provision violates the Second Amendment rights of those who have already been approved to own a gun. This includes those who have previously undergone a background check and own a gun, people with concealed-carry permits and people who have a state certificate of eligibility to own a gun.
First-time gun buyers would still be subject to the waiting period, which Ishii emphasized in his ruling.
"Given the nature of the challenges made, the Court emphasizes that it is expressing no opinion on the constitutionality of the 10-day waiting period in general or as applied to first time California firearms purchasers," he said.
The Sacramento Bee reports Ishii stayed his ruling for 180 days in order to give California time to change the law.
According to the Sacramento Bee, the law was challenged by two California gun owners and two gun rights groups. In their lawsuit against the Department of Justice and California Attorney General Kamala Harris, they argued that the 10-day waiting period was unconstitutional.
"This is a great win for Second Amendment civil rights and common sense," Jeff Silvester, one of the gun owners who was a plaintiff in the case, said in a statement. "I couldn't be happier with how this case turned out."
The other plaintiff Brandon Combs, who is also the executive director of the Calguns Foundation, also praised the ruling.
"California gun owners are not second-class citizens and the Second Amendment doesn't protect second class rights," Combs said. "This decision is an important step towards restoring fundamental individual liberties in the Golden State."
U.S. District Court Judge Anthony W. Ishii issued the ruling after a March bench trial, as well as deposition testimony and numerous briefings that concluded at the end of June. Last December, he had denied a request by state Attorney General Kamala Harris to throw out the lawsuit. Harris, along with the California Department of Justice, were defendants in the suit.
"As an individual plaintiff I was ecstatic," said Madera County resident Brandon Combs. "It was years and an awful lot of work."
But as executive director of The Calguns Foundation, Combs said the decision is a step in what he sees as a restoration of gun rights that are part of the Constitution. Next up: almost certainly, another federal lawsuit, this one targeting the state's limit on handgun purchases to one every 30 days.
"Under state law, you can only buy one handgun a month," Combs said. "We think that is simply unconstitutional."
Ultimately, a challenge to the state's entire waiting-period law could come at some point in the future, he said, depending on what happens in the state Legislature.
A spokesman for Harris' office said the ruling is currently under review and no decision had been made on an appeal.
Ishii's decision comes more than two and a half years after the lawsuit was initially brought by gun owners Combs, Jeff Silvester and Michael Poeschl, as well as The Calguns Foundation and The Second Amendment Foundation. Two of the plaintiffs are local: Besides Combs, Silvester lives in Kings County. Poeschl lives in Orange County.