Pro-gun advocates are suing California for the second time in an attempt to overturn the state’s 10-day waiting period for purchasing a firearm.
The Firearms Policy Coalition announced the legal action (Richards v. Bonta) Tuesday, joined by the San Diego Gun Owners PAC, the California Gun Rights Foundation and the Second Amendment Foundation.
“In short, defendants’ enforcement of the waiting period laws prevents law-abiding people from taking possession of lawfully acquired firearms for immediate self-defense and other lawful purposes. … This relegates the right to keep and bear arms to second-class status,” according to the complaint.
California has had a gun purchase waiting period for decades, with the 10-day version going into effect in 1996.
A previous attempt to overturn it, Silvester v. Becerra, made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court but was not heard, and so the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding the wait period stood.
This most recent lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court Southern District of California.
This is significant because gun-related cases in that court are generally handled by Judge Roger Benitez, a President George W. Bush-appointee who has expressed hostility toward California’s strict gun laws, overturning the state’s bans on assault rifles and high-capacity ammunition magazines. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has referred to him as an “extremist.”
The California Attorney General’s Office said in an email statement that it has received the complaint and is reviewing it.
