Sitting on California Governor Jerry Brown's desk are a number of bills, including AB 144 sponsored by Assembly Member Anthony Portantino (D – Pasadena). This bill would generally make it a crime to open carry handguns in California. California is one of 43 states allowing the open carry of handguns, typically by way of a holster.
However California is alone in requiring that openly carried guns be unloaded in incorporated areas, and in unincorporated territories where teh County has banned all shooting. AB 144 only bans the open carry of handguns, but not long guns, such as deer rifles, shotguns, and modern sporting rifles which often are styled to look like military grade automatic weapons, e.g., AK-47s, even though these firearms are merely one-shot-per-trigger-pull rifles.
And so unless Governor Brown vetoes AB 144, citizens will be forced to carry long guns in urban areas instead of holstered handguns, the norm across the United States. Under Portantino’s bill, citizens would be required to open carry shotguns or rifles in public places like Ralph’s grocery stores, Starbucks, sidewalks, streets, and other public places from San Francisco to San Diego. “I don’t know what Portantino is thinking,” says John Pierce, Co-founder of OpenCarry.org.
“if Portantino wants guns out of sight, his bill is going to backfire,” adds Pierce. “Places like Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade will look like a moving gun show when parents shoulder AR-15s and double-barreled shotguns while taking their kids out for ice cream.”
California gun rights groups like South Bay Open Carry and the Responsible Citizens of California (RCC) also oppose Portantino’s bill.
RCC Spokesperson Yih-Chau Chang explains that “we just think the Supreme Court made a lot of sense” when it held in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) that the Second Amendment protects handgun carry because handguns can be carried in a holster and aimed “with one hand while the other hand dials the police.”
All eyes now are on Governor Brown, a gun owner who is proud of his nickname "Governor Moonbeam." If Brown does not veto AB 144, he may soon earn the nickname "Governor Long Gun."
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