## Facts

- California prohibited carrying a concealed firearm in public without a license and required applicants to show “good cause” under state law.
- San Diego and Yolo Counties defined “good cause” to require a particularized, documented need for self-defense beyond a generalized desire to carry a firearm.
- Applicants (including Peruta and Richards) sought licenses to carry concealed handguns for self-defense but could not satisfy the counties’ “good cause” policies and were denied permits.
- The applicants challenged the “good cause” policies as applied to concealed-carry licensing, asserting a violation of the Second Amendment.
- Two federal district courts granted summary judgment for the counties.
- A divided Ninth Circuit panel reversed, but the Ninth Circuit granted rehearing en banc, vacated the panel decision, and consolidated the cases.

## Issues

1. Whether the Second Amendment protects, to any degree, a right of ordinary, law-abiding members of the general public to carry concealed firearms in public.
2. Whether county “good cause” requirements for concealed-carry licenses burden conduct protected by the Second Amendment.

## Decision

- The en banc Ninth Circuit affirmed the district courts’ judgments for the counties.
- The court held the Second Amendment does not preserve or protect a right of a member of the general public to carry concealed firearms in public.
- Because concealed public carry falls outside the Second Amendment’s scope, restrictions on concealed carry—including “good cause” licensing requirements—do not implicate the Second Amendment.
- The court expressly did not decide whether the Second Amendment protects open carry, or whether there is a general right to carry firearms openly in public.

## Legal Principles

- The scope of the Second Amendment is defined by text informed by historical understanding; conduct historically subject to broad prohibition can fall outside the Amendment’s protection.
- There is no Second Amendment right for members of the general public to carry concealed firearms in public.
- Regulations that restrict only concealed carry do not burden Second Amendment-protected conduct and therefore do not require means-end scrutiny under the post-*Heller* framework for the concealed-carry aspect.
- A licensing regime requiring “good cause” for concealed carry is constitutionally permissible where the asserted right is limited to concealed public carry.

## Conclusion

The en banc court upheld county policies requiring a particularized showing of “good cause” to obtain a concealed-carry license because the Second Amendment does not protect concealed carry in public by ordinary citizens, while leaving unresolved any constitutional question about open carry.


Peruta v. County of San Diego, 824 F.3d 919 (9th Cir. 2016) (en banc)