A concurring three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday struck down two different orders that forced gun stores and shooting ranges to close during the 2020 pandemic.

The cases, McDougall v. Ventura County and Martinez v. Villanueva, involved local gun stores and ranges joined by gun rights groups to include the Firearms Policy Coalition and the Second Amendment Foundation. In short, the judges found that the counties overstepped their authority when they ordered ranges and gun stores closed over public health concerns. 

"The Orders therefore wholly prevented law-abiding citizens in the County from realizing their right to keep and bear arms, both by prohibiting access to acquiring any firearm and ammunition, and barring practice at firing ranges with any firearms already owned," said U.S. Circuit Judge Lawrence VanDyke, a 2019 appointment of President Trump, in the 60-page ruling in McDougall. "These blanket prohibitions on access and practice clearly burden conduct protected by the Second Amendment and fail under both strict and intermediate scrutiny."

The panel further held that singling out gun stores and ranges while other vendors were allowed to remain open just wasn't logical. 

"Instead, just as in the recent Supreme Court COVID cases involving religious liberty, all activities open to the public in the County essentially pose the same risk of furthering the spread of COVID by way of facilitating continued public interaction," said VanDyke. "And there is nothing in the record suggesting that gun shops, ammunition shops, or firing ranges posed a higher risk of spreading COVID than, say, bicycle shops or hardware stores."

The 2A groups backing the suits hailed the ruling. 

“These cases highlight the pattern of abuses California officials routinely direct toward the Second Amendment,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb in an email to Guns.com. “We agree with Judge VanDyke’s prediction of an en banc challenge, and we’re prepared to fight that battle, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. As Judge Andrew Kleinfeld wrote in his concurring opinion, ‘Neither pandemic nor even war wipes away the Constitution.’”

"When authoritarian governments used COVID as an excuse to attack Second Amendment rights, FPC Law immediately went to work throughout the country, including through these successful cases. Today’s opinions from the Ninth Circuit confirm our claims that the COVID closures of gun stores and firing ranges violated the Second Amendment rights of Californians,” said Adam Kraut, FPC’s vice president of programs. "FPC will continue to aggressively litigate these and other cases to defend the rights of our members and the public."

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