California Handgun Open Carry Lawsuit Update 6-25-2024

Before I give my Open Carry update, I would like to mention that Attorney General Garland has asked the Supreme Court to grant six pending cert petitions involving several Federal prohibitions on possessing firearms.

The lead case is Garland v. Range. In 1995, Brian Range was convicted of receiving a little over $2,500 in food stamps he was not entitled to receive. He was sentenced to three years probation and no jail time. However, since the state misdemeanor allowed for one to be incarcerated for a term longer than two years, Mr. Range became a person prohibited from possessing firearms under Federal law.

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals held that the Federal law prohibiting Mr. Range from possessing firearms violates the Second Amendment as it applies to Mr. Range.

AG Garland had asked SCOTUS to hold the petitions pending its decision in US v. Rahimi. Two other petitions he had asked to hold pending Rahimi are still in limbo.

And now for the California Open Carry update.

Two years ago, Michael Zeleny was awarded over $900,000 because the City of Menlo Park, California, would not allow him to stage his one-man protests with an unloaded handgun and unloaded long gun.

Given that Mr. Zeleny did not contest the award (he accepted slightly less than the court awarded), I've long wondered why he filed a notice of appeal.

Now we know. He seeks to enjoin the enforcement of California's bans on openly carrying unloaded handguns and unloaded long guns.

Here is the link to the CourtListener docket, where you can read the opening brief for free.

And here is the link to the CourtListener district court docket.

Zeleny's lawyer is Alan Beck, who represented George Young Jr. in his decade-long lawsuit seeking a license to openly carry a handgun in public. Mr. Young won before a three-judge panel whose opinion was vacated and reheard en banc. The en banc panel held that there is no right to carry concealable firearms in public, openly or concealed even though Mr. Young had forfeited his concealed carry claim. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court vacated the en banc opinion of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and remanded it back to the en banc panel. The en banc panel kicked the case back to the district court. Mr. Young then accepted an undisclosed monetary settlement and dismissed his lawsuit with prejudice.

I have not given the opening brief in Zeleny a thorough read, but I did enjoy seeing footnote 3 on page 9, where Mr. Beck cited a law review article by "Chuck Michel" in support of Mr. Beck's correct argument that Open Carry and not concealed carry, is the right protected by the Second Amendment.

You might recall that Chuck Michel's law firm filed four concealed carry lawsuits funded by the NRA, arguing that California's Open Carry bans do not violate the Second Amendment. Michel describes himself as the voluntary president of the CRPA, which was a plaintiff in the concealed carry lawsuits (all of which were lost).

That's all for now.