Suit against gun store law in Alameda County revived

The Constitution protects the right to buy and sell firearms as well as the right to own them, a federal appeals court said Monday in reviving a lawsuit challenging an Alameda County ordinance banning gun shops within 500 feet of a residential neighborhood or a school.

A federal judge ruled that the 500-foot buffer zone was a reasonable measure to protect neighborhoods from gun violence.

At the least, O’Scannlain said, the county must present some evidence that “gun stores act as a magnet for crime.”

[...] if the practical effect of the law is to ban new gun stores — something the three businessmen claim, and the county denies — the county must show that such a prohibition is the only available means to reduce crime, O’Scannlain said.

The ruling is one of many attempts by lower federal courts to fill gaps in the Supreme Court’s 2009 decision that declared an individual right, under the Second Amendment, to possess firearms for self-defense, but left the scope of permissible government regulation unclear.

Federal courts have upheld San Francisco’s ban on high-capacity semiautomatic weapons and its requirement that handgun owners keep their weapons stored and locked.

“Given California’s legal requirements to use licensed dealers for firearms transfers and background checks, it’s important that retailers are able to open their doors — and keep them open,” Combs said.

Attorney Imran Khaliq, who represented the advocacy groups Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence and Youth Alive, said courts uphold such laws as part of a local government’s authority to protect residents’ health and safety.