Gun Owners Lost the Battle but may (Eventually) Win the War
Most gun owners, particularly those in California, relished a fantasy in which the Supreme Court of the United States agreed to hear the case of Peruta v. San Diego and set the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals straight in its failure to protect the right to carry a firearm in public. These gun owners hoped that the SCOTUS would step-in, overturn the 2016 Ninth Circuit decision holding that the Second Amendment does not protect a right to carry a concealed firearm, and on top of it, loudly proclaim that the Second Amendment protects a right to keep and bear arms in some manner (open or concealed) outside of one’s own home.
Last week’s refusal by the SCOTUS to grant certiorari, the legal term for hearing the case and deciding this question, was a huge disappointment to those gun owners. But to many pro-Second Amendment lawyers and citizens, the denial of cert was not a surprise. Instead, it was a relief. Their reasoning is even though we have a new President and a new Supreme Court Justice, the balance of the Supreme Court has not yet tipped with any certainty that Second Amendment cases, if heard, will result in wins for the gun community.