Commentary: Defensive Gun Uses Show Faulty Premise of California Gun Laws

 Amy Swearer | Grace McNabnay | February 18, 2025

As wildfires raged last month in California, tens of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes, often with just minutes of warning. To make matters worse, looters took advantage of the chaos and lack of police resources, showing up in droves to ransack evacuated areas—sometimes as helpless residents looked on in horror as their doorbell cameras captured the looting in real time.

Fortunately for residents of at least some evacuated areas, a handful of their armed neighbors stayed behind to protect their homes and livelihoods from would-be looters—in some cases, bravely patrolling their streets with firearms in what certainly seemed to be open defiance of the state’s public carry laws.

But for countless others, the state’s restrictive gun laws undoubtedly complicated their ability to defend their homes, at the very least compounding their anxiety by raising questions about their legal rights in a state notorious for treating lawful gun owners as the enemy of public safety. Barriers like mandatory waiting periods, meanwhile, ensured that Californians who didn’t already own guns would be kept from exercising one of their most fundamental rights precisely when it mattered most. 

California: Plaintiffs Appeal Dismissal of Assisted Suicide Lawsuit Under the ADA and US Constitution

Diane Coleman, President and CEO of  NDY (Not Dead Yet) [pictured right]

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Today, the 34th Anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is the the perfect day for an update on the groundbreaking lawsuit, United Spinal v. California, which challenges the California assisted suicide law as violations of the ADA and the U.S. Constitution's Due Process and Equal Protection provisions. The federal District Court dismissed the lawsuit in the spring and plaintiffs promptly gave notice that we would appeal. This week, United Spinal Association, Not Dead Yet and the other plaintiffs filed our appeal. Here is the press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Disability Organizations and Individuals Partner to Appeal the Deadly and Discriminatory Public Policy of Physician-Assisted Suicide California Law Unlawful and Unconstitutional

LOS ANGELES, CA — [7/24/24] — Today, the United Spinal Association (“United Spinal”), Not Dead Yet (“NDY”), Institute for Patients’ Rights (“IPR”), Communities Actively Living Independent & Free (“CALIF”), and individual plaintiffs, Lonnie VanHook and Ingrid Tischer, filed an appeal to the 9th Circuit following the recent dismissal of their lawsuit challenging California’s End of Life Option Act (EOLOA). The current state law permits physicians to prescribe lethal drugs to suicidal patients and has weakened many of the safeguards in the original law, fast-tracking death by suicide within 48 hours. The EOLOA, by design, remains unregulated by any California public entity, leaving patients and their loved ones at grave risk of harm and without recourse.

California’s New Assisted Suicide Law: Whose Choice Will it Be?

https://www.jurist.org/commentary/2015/10/margaret-dore-physician-assisted-suicide

Senator Blakespear Removes Bill Expanding Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

Senator Catherine Blakespear has removed proposed Senate Bill 1196, seeking to expand assisted suicide and euthanasia in California, from consideration prior to its first hearing.  

"At this point, there is a reluctance from many around me to take up this discussion, and the future is unclear,” Blakespear said in a statement. “The topic, however, remains of great interest to me and to those who have supported this bill thus far.”

Senator Susan Eggman, who authored the original act in 2016, commented that pushing forward now would create a risk of pushback. She stated:

While I have compassion for those desiring further change, pushing for too much too soon puts CA [California] & the country at risk of losing the gains we have made for personal autonomy....