California Anti-Gun Shop Law Challenged in Supreme Court

Liberals in one California county are proving that you can implement gun control without gun control laws, so long as there’s another law you can use as an excuse.

In their case, it’s zoning laws. Alameda County has an ordinance in effect that prohibits gun stores from being located within 500 feet of areas that include a resident-zoned district. Businessmen John Teixeira, Steve Nobriga, and Gary Gamaza filed a lawsuit in 2012 challenging the ordinance, arguing that it prevents them from opening a gun shop in San Lorenzo, violating their Second Amendment rights. They were aided in the lawsuit by the Calguns Foundation, Second Amendment Foundation, and tge California Association of Federal Firearms Licenses.

According to Fox News,

Teixeira and company said they determined there was not a single lot within the county that met the ordinance’s requirement of 500 feet. “Local neighbors who live eight lanes across an interstate and the anti-rights politicians that cater to them can’t redline gun stores and the right to buy arms out of existence,” Calguns Foundation Chairman Gene Hoffman said in a statement also provided to Fox News.

An 11-judge panel in the Court of Appeals upheld the county ordinance, claiming that the law didn’t violate the Second Amendment because gun owners could buy guns at other stores in the county. It goes without saying that their reasoning would’ve been different had this case involved the construction of an abortion clinic.

More from the report:

The ruling overturned a decision made the previous year by a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit that said the Second Amendment extends to gun stores and requires governments to justify restrictions on them. That panel in a 2-1 decision said Alameda County had to present evidence to justify the restriction on gun store locations.

Attorneys for the case have since filed a writ of certiorari seeking review by the Supreme Court of the United States to hear the case.

The most recent significant Supreme Court verdict on guns was the 2008 case of D.C. vs. Heller, which held in a landmark 5-4 decision that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to possess a firearm unconnected from service in a militia. The case also demolished the “Second Amendment is just for muskets!” argument we often hear pop up.

Will gun control go 0-2 in the Supreme Court? Stay tuned to find out.

Share this story with others now!

By Matt

Matt is the co-founder of Unbiased America and a freelance writer specializing in economics and politics. He’s been published... More about Matt

Mentioned in this article: