SAF Files Amicus Brief In San Diego County Gun Permit Case

Second Amendment Foundation Files Amicus Brief In San Diego County Gun Permit Case

Second Amendment Foundation
Second Amendment Foundation

BELLEVUE, WA –-(Ammoland.com)- The Second Amendment Foundation has filed an amicus brief in a California case that challenges the constitutionality of discretionary gun permit rules adopted by officials in San Diego County, California.

The brief, submitted by attorney Alan Gura, is also on behalf of the Calguns Foundation and two Yolo County residents, Adam Richards and Brett Stewart, who are parties to a separate, but fundamentally related lawsuit. The case at hand, Peruta v. San Diego County, is now on appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

At issue in both cases is the broad discretionary authority exercised by California authorities under existing statute in the issuance of carry permits. Edward Peruta’s lawsuit against San Diego County challenges the constitutionality of “good cause” criteria used as a basis for issuing or, more typically, denying a permit to carry. SAF has filed an appeal in its own case, Richards v. Prieto, in the Ninth Circuit.

“To be sure,” Gura writes in his amicus brief, “(officials) are able to license the carrying of handguns in the interest of public safety. But they must not be in the business of judging people’s character, or forcing individuals to prove a sufficiently good reason for wanting to exercise something that is their right.”

The SAF brief also notes that the court “should recognize that (California Penal Codes) good cause’ and good moral character’ requirements are classic specimens of unconstitutional prior restraints.”

Such conditions, Gura writes in his brief for SAF, “plainly condition the exercise of a fundamental right upon the unbridled discretion of a licensing official. Accordingly, they must be struck down as such.”

The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 650,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control. SAF has previously funded successful firearms-related suits against the cities of Los Angeles; New Haven, CT; and San Francisco on behalf of American gun owners, a lawsuit against the cities suing gun makers and an amicus brief and fund for the Emerson case holding the Second Amendment as an individual right.