9th Circuit Finds Closing of Gun Stores in Ventura UNCONSTITUTIONAL

On Thursday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the COVID-19 lockdowns of gun stores in Ventura County, California, violated Constitutional rights.

McDougall v. County of Ventura was appealed to the Ninth Circuit after a US District Court claimed Ventura County’s COVID-19 mitigation orders to close gun stores, gun ranges, and ammo shops were legal.

The Circuit Court rejected that ruling because the Ventura County mitigation orders obviously violated the Second Amendment.

Presiding over the three-panel court, Judges Lawrence Vandyke and Andrew Kleinfeld reversed the lower court while Judge Ryan Nelsen dissented.

Vandyke and Kleinfeld said, “Ultimately, the issue boils down to the County’s designation of “essential” versus “non-essential” businesses and activities. While courts should afford some measure of deference to local policy determinations, “the enshrinement of constitutional rights necessarily takes certain policy choices off the table.” Heller, 554 U.S. at 636. When a government completely bans all acquisition of firearms and ammunition by closing gun shops, ammunition shops, and firing ranges, it’s one of those off-limits policy choices squarely contemplated by Heller. See id. at 630. The Orders cannot satisfy strict scrutiny.”

Abortion clinics, liquor stores, pot shops were open as essential but not gun stores or churches. We definitely see left-wing bias there.

The judges stated, “Not only did Appellees fail to provide any evidence or explanation suggesting that gun shops, ammunition shops, and firing ranges posed a greater risk of spreading COVID-19 than other businesses and activities deemed ‘essential,’ but they also failed to provide any evidence that they considered less restrictive alternatives for the general public.”

It’s great to see these arbitrary rules shot down but Democrats will continue to ignore the constitution when it doesn’t suit them.

Democrats don’t want Americans to have guns. Meanwhile, the leftists in blue cities continually ignore their own gun laws when it comes to criminals.

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