California attorney general joins 16-state coalition supporting New York gun restrictions

By RIA ROEBUCK JOSEPH THE CENTER SQUARE CONTRIBUTOR

(The Center Square) — California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta, joined 15 other states on Tuesday, in filing an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in support of overturning the district court’s ruling that the New York’s Concealed Carry Improvement Act’s private-property provision “affirmatively exercises the right to exclude concealed carriers on behalf of all private property owners.” The appeal deals with that provision default rule that firearms are not allowed on private property open to the public without express permission. The law criminalizes possession of a weapon on another person’s private property when the person carrying the firearm “knows or reasonably should know that the owner or lessee of such property” has not “given express consent” to carry firearms on the premises. The provision applies to a variety of locations: offices, stores, malls, parking lots, hotels, business conference centers and much more, making it an offense to carry a weapon into these areas without prior approval by the property owners.

The coalition of the District of Columbia and states — including Illinois, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington — argue that this does not infringe on the Second Amendment rights of gun owners but rather protects residents from the harmful effects of gun violence and promotes the safe and responsible use of firearms.

“In no way does the Second Amendment create a free-forall rule that guns will be allowed