The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has denied a petition for an en banc rehearing of Jeff Silvester, et al. v. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra. Formerly captioned as Silvester v. Kamala Harris, the federal Second Amendment lawsuit is supported by The Calguns Foundation of Sacramento, CA, and Second Amendment Foundation of Bellevue, WA.

Plaintiffs Jeffery Sylvester’s and gun owner Brandon Combs’ complaint was gun buyers who had already passed a background check and been issued a state Certificate of Eligibility or a California License to Carry were still being required to wait ten days after the date of purchase before picking up the firearm.

The initial case was heard in 2014 when District Judge Anthony Ishii ruled, “the California waiting period law violated Second Amendment rights of citizens and should be replaced with the Federal National Instant Criminal Systems (NICS) adopted by most other states.”

Ishii noted that he felt the ten-day waiting period was even more egregious for people who already own guns as there is no evidence to support the theory that a waiting period stops “impulse acts of violence by individuals who already possess a firearm.”

Kamala Harris, then Attorney General, refused to cancel the 10-day waiting period while she appealed the case.

In response to the recent appellate court decision, Calguns issued a statement saying, “In its decision to ignore the trial court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law as well as longstanding principles of appellate review, and now in its refusal to correct the three-judge panel decision’s manifest errors in all regards, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has made it crystal clear that it has no intention of following the Supreme Court’s precedent and protecting Second Amendment rights from unconstitutional, burdensome, and irrational laws.”

The Calguns Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that serves its members, supporters, and the public through educational, cultural, and judicial efforts to advance Second Amendment and related civil rights.

Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, said, “There is no government public safety interest in a waiting period if you already own a gun and have gone through a background check. This is clearly only about a right delayed being a right denied.”

The Calguns Foundation intends to petition the Supreme Court to reverse the Ninth Circuit’s decision.