According to Firearm Chronicles
A group of attorneys general from across the country have come together to back a challenge to Hawaii’s restrictive carry laws that’s currently before judges in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The appeals court has already ruled that the Second Amendment doesn’t protect a right to carry a concealed firearm, but Hawaii resident George Young is challenging a state law that requires a permit to open carry.
The state rarely grants licenses to average citizens, and a three judge panel on the 9th Circuit has already ruled that, since the Second Amendment specifically protects a right to bear arms, and the Ninth Circuit says concealed carry isn’t protected by the Second Amendment, that must mean that the right to bear arms encompasses the right to open carry.
Now Young vs. Hawaii is before a broader panel of judges on the Ninth Circuit, and the AGs in Louisiana, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia are weighing in with support for Young and the right to bear arms. The amicus brief authored by Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry says out a strong case for the unconstitutional nature of Hawaii’s carry laws.
Hawaii’s permitting regime functions nearly as an outright ban on carrying firearms outside the home. It is undisputed that “no one other than a security guard—or someone similarly employed—had ever been issued an open carry license” under the scheme. But carrying a firearm outside the home is necessary for self-protection, a core right of the Second Amendment. And so “the law’s burden on the right” here is severe. Such a scheme cannot survive any level of judicial review stricter than a rational basis test.