Governor Greg Abbott gave a very Texas response to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision barring the right to carry concealed firearms in public: “Come and take it.”
What are my thoughts about the ruling in California that Americans don't have right to carry concealed guns? pic.twitter.com/YnMyMyheBq
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) June 10, 2016
The federal court Thursday affirmed a lower court judgment ruling “there is no Second Amendment right for members of the general public to carry concealed firearms in public.”
“The right of a member of the general public to carry a concealed firearm in public is not, and never has been, protected by the Second Amendment,” the en banc court wrote in a summary of their ruling.
The 7-4 decision arrived after defendants in two California counties sued the state alleging a law requiring concealed carry applicants prove “good cause” to carry violated the Second Amendment.
“Because the Second Amendment does not protect in any degree the right to carry concealed firearms in public,” the court wrote, “any prohibition or restriction a state may choose to impose on concealed carry — including a requirement of ‘good cause,’ however defined — is necessarily allowed by the Amendment.”
Citing the historic DC v. Heller decision in his principal dissenting opinion, Judge Consuelo Callahan wrote the restriction essentially amounted to a “total ban on the right of an ordinary citizen to carry a firearm in public for self defense.”
In another tweet sent yesterday, Gov. Abbott – a fan of the Constitution and late pro-Second Amendment Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia – decried the court’s belief that it was above the supreme law of the land.
I'm tired of judges rewriting the Constitution. We need a president who appoints judges who apply it. #tcot #pjnet https://t.co/h8vm5KHsHF
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) June 10, 2016
The governor made a strong show of support for the Second Amendment last year when he signed a law allowing the open carry of firearms in his state, which has over 6 million gun owners.
The Republican governor’s response to California’s ruling is consistent with a defiant statement he made toward the Obama administration earlier this year when they proposed stricter rules on the selling and purchase of firearms.
Obama wants to impose more gun control. My response.#? COME & TAKE IT @NRA #tcot #PJNET https://t.co/RUPbcev5jY pic.twitter.com/8VNwisj966
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) January 1, 2016
Read the Ninth Court’s ruling below:
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