Calif. Court Strikes Down San Francisco Handgun Ban

A California appeals court has ruled that local governments have no authority to ban handguns.

Yesterday the court struck down a handgun ban adopted in San Francisco in a 2005 ballot measure, holding that state laws regulating gun sales pre-empt local attempts to ban the possession and sale of handguns.

“These laws of statewide application reflect the legislature’s balancing of interests––on the one side the interest of the general public to be protected from the criminal misuse of firearms, on the other, the interests of law-abiding citizens to be able to purchase and use firearms to deter crime, to help police fight crime, to defend themselves, and for hunting and certain recreational purposes,” the court said in its opinion (PDF).

The city could ask the state supreme court to review the case, but the high court turned down review of a 1982 decision striking down a similar law, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

One of the groups that challenged the law, the Second Amendment Foundation, noted in a press release that it had urged the city to drop the ballot proposition that resulted in the gun ban.

“This has been a horrible waste of the court’s time, the city’s legal resources and the taxpayers’ money,” said the group’s founder, Alan Gottlieb. “This is a battle that had to be fought, and this is a ruling that we expected from day one of our lawsuit.”