Silveira

Opinion by Judge REINHARDT; Concurrence by Judge MAGILL.

In 1999, the State of California enacted amendments to its gun control laws that significantly strengthened the state’s restrictions on the possession, use, and transfer of the semi-automatic weapons popularly known as “assault weapons.” Plaintiffs, California residents who either own assault weapons, seek to acquire such weapons, or both, brought this challenge to the gun control statute, asserting that the law, as amended, violates the Second Amendment, the Equal Protection Clause, and a host of other constitutional provisions. The district court dismissed all of the plaintiffs’ claims. Because the Second Amendment does not confer an individual right to own or possess arms, we affirm the dismissal of all claims brought pursuant to that constitutional provision. As to the Equal Protection claims, we conclude that there is no constitutional infirmity in the statute’s provisions regarding active peace officers. We find, however, no rational basis for the establishment of a statutory exception with respect to retired peace officers, and hold that the retired officers’ exception fails even the most deferential level of…

Concurrence.

I join parts I, II-C, and III of the court’s opinion. Respectfully, I cannot join parts II-A and II-B, but I do concur in the judgment. Parts II-A and II-B consist of a long analysis involving the merits of the Second Amendment claims and the Ninth Circuit’s adoption of the collective rights theory of the Second Amendment. As discussed below, this analysis seems unnecessary.

Article III of the Constitution requires that federal courts adjudicate only actual “cases” or “controversies.” E.g., Allen v. Wright, 468 U.S. 737, 750 , 104 S.Ct. 3315 , 82 L.Ed.2d 556 (1984). This requirement “defines with respect to the Judicial Branch the idea of separation of powers on which the Federal Government is founded.” Id. Among the doctrines that ensure federal courts only resolve “cases” or “controversies,” Article III standing “is perhaps the most important.” Id. The requirement of Article III standing “aids the federal judiciary to avoid intruding imper-missibly upon the powers vested in the executive and legislative branches, by preventing courts from issuing advisory opinions not founded upon the facts of a controversy between truly adverse parties.” Scott v. Pasadena Unified…