Do You Have the Right to Bear Arms in California ?

The Federal Constitutional Right to Bear Arms: In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) U.S. 128 S.Ct. 2783, the United States Supreme Court held "that the Second Amendment confers an individual right to keep and bear arms." (Id., 128 S.Ct. at p. 2799.) It recognized that "the inherent right of self-defense has been central to the Second Amendment right." (Id. at p. 2817.) In McDonald v. City of Chicago, Ill. (2010) U.S. 130 S.Ct. 3020, the court further held that this right is incorporated into the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and thus made applicable to the states. (Id., 130 S.Ct. at p. 3050.) As the court also stated in Heller, however, "the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited." (District of Columbia v. Heller, supra, 128 S.Ct. at p. 2816.) Thus, it added, "nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons . . . ." (Id. at pp. 2816-2817.) It stated that the Second Amendment protects "the right of law-abiding, responsible citizens to use arms in defense of hearth and home." (Heller, at p. 2821.) Thereafter, in California, People v. Flores (2008) 169 Cal.App.4th 568 held that Penal Code section 12021, subdivision (c), which makes it a crime for a person with a qualifying misdemeanor conviction to possess a firearm, does not violate the Second Amendment as construed in Heller. It explained, in part: "The public interest in a prohibition on firearms possession is at its apex in circumstances, as here, where a statute disarms persons who have proven unable to control violent criminal impulses. " (Flores, at p. 575.) Similarly, People v. Villa (2009) 178 Cal.App.4th 443 held that Penal Code section 12021, subdivision (e), which makes it a crime for certain juvenile offenders to possess a firearm, does not violate the Second Amendment. It stated: "Penal Code section 12021, subdivision (e) at issue here has the same purpose as the statute upheld in Flores: to disarm people who have proven an inability to control violent criminal impulses. " (Villa, at p. 449.) Penal Code section 12021, subdivision (e) applies to juveniles who have been found to have committed robbery or assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury. (See Welf. & Inst. Code, 707, subd. (b)(3), (b)(14).) Thus, even aside from the challenged probation condition, the minor is prohibited from possessing a firearm.