The U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to decide whether law-abiding citizens need to provide law enforcement with a specific reason to be able to legally carry a concealed weapon for self-defense.“In over 40 states, lives are being saved by good people carrying firearms,” Michel said in an email. “But in some California counties, the CCW licensing process has been corrupted by cronyism and politics — these are offensive standards that have been used to deny citizens their constitutional rights for far too long.”The case stems from a 2009 lawsuit that challenged the county’s policy of requiring “good cause” to obtain a concealed-carry weapon permit, or CCW, as unconstitutional.Eleven judges heard arguments on June 16, 2015, in San Francisco. A similar case out of Yolo County was heard at the same time.The en banc panel took a year to reach its split 7-4 decision, reversing the three-judge panel.“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 court said.In 2016, the department issued 224 new permits, with a total of 1,278 active permits in the county, officials said.There was a period, beginning in February 2014, when the 9th Circuit initially ruled on the matter, that the Sheriff’s Department accepted applications without good cause but put them on hold because the case was in limbo.The department stopped accepting those self-defense applications in June, when the en banc panel reversed the earlier ruling. The 2,463 applications remain on hold, should the law change.
