California laws prohibiting gun ownership while possessing drugs still apply despite recent federal rulings on gun ownership, the Fourth District Court of Appeal, Division Two, wrote Oct. 18.
Joshua Paul Allen was convicted by jury of possessing a controlled substance while armed with a loaded firearm and of carrying a loaded firearm June 7, 2022.
Law enforcement pulled Allen over Jan. 22, 2021. He was driving his car with a loaded firearm stuffed in his waistband. Allen claimed he took the gun from another person to prevent them from firing it at another, and during trial repeated that he was not the gun’s owner. Police also found 18 bullets, methamphetamine and a glass pipe in Allen’s car. Allen admitted to using methamphetamine an hour before the stop.
He was sentenced to two years in state prison for the drug-firearm charge, and 16 months for the loaded firearm charge.
Allen appealed, arguing that both crimes he was convicted of violate the Constitution after the 2022 Supreme Court ruling in N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.
He also argued that he could not be convicted twice of different crimes resulting from the same act of carrying the firearm.
The Bruen ruling established a test for analyzing whether a firearm regulation violates the Second Amendment, according to the appellate ruling. Under the test, an individual’s gun-related conduct is presumptively protected by the Constitution. The government must then justify its regulation by demonstrating that it is consistent with the United States’ historical tradition of firearm regulation, based on how and why the regulation burdens a law-abiding citizen’s right to armed self-defense. If it is within the nation’s historic tradition, then the individual’s conduct falls outside Second Amendment protection.
The Court of Appeal ruled that the Bruen ruling does not change the constitutionality of California’s regulation that prohibits people from possessing illegal drugs and loaded firearms. The right to a firearm is given to law-abiding citizens, and the possession of illegal drugs automatically invalidates that right, the Court of Appeal ruled.
Allen also argued that carrying a loaded and unregistered firearm in a vehicle is now a constitutional right under Bruen.
The Court of Appeal said that Allen’s argument was a misinterpretation.
“Heller explained that ‘the Second Amendment is not unlimited’ and is ‘not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose,’” the Court of Appeal wrote.
The Court of Appeal did agree with Allen’s non-constitutional arguments. He should not have been convicted of both possessing a controlled substance while armed, and of carrying a loaded firearm, they found. Defendants are prevented from being convicted of two different crimes for the same act by Penal Code Section 654. The Court of Appeal ordered a San Bernardino Superior judge to decide which conviction to vacate.
Deputy Attorneys General Christine Friedman and Eric Swenson represented the state.
Richard Fitzer, under appointment, represented Allen.
Fourth District Court of Appeal, Division Two, Justice Frank Menetrez wrote the opinion, which Presiding Justice Manuel Ramirez and Justice Richard Fields joined.
San Bernardino Superior Judge John Vander Feer presided.
San Bernardino Case No. FVI21000240
Appellate Case No. E079475
Read the appellate ruling here.
