A federal judge in Sacramento has overturned a 95-year-old state law that banned firearms dealers from using images of handguns on their storefronts as advertising to sell such weapons.
The law blocked dealers from using such images but allowed them to use signs featuring shotguns or rifles, something state lawyers argued was in place to stop impulsive individuals from purchasing a handgun and using it in a suicide or crime.
U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley disagreed, ruling in an order filed Tuesday that the law violates the U.S. Constitution.
“California may not accomplish its goals by violating the First Amendment,” Nunley wrote in a 15-page order issued in the four-year-old case.