California is only an outlier in that the guys who were carrying the guns were a tad different.
en.wikipedia.org
The
Mulford Act was a 1967
California bill that repealed a law allowing
public carrying of loaded firearms. Named after
Republican assemblyman
Don Mulford, and signed into law by then governor of California,
Ronald Reagan, the bill was crafted with the goal of disarming members of the
Black Panther Party who were lawfully conducting armed patrols of Oakland neighborhoods, in what would later be termed
copwatching.
[1][2] They garnered national attention after
Black Panthers members, bearing arms, marched upon the
California State Capitol to protest the bill.
[3][4][5]
...
Both Republicans and Democrats in California supported increased gun control, as did the
National Rifle Association of America, a major supporter of the act.
[9] Governor Ronald Reagan, who was coincidentally present on the capitol lawn when the protesters arrived, later commented that he saw "no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons" and that guns were a "ridiculous way to solve problems that have to be solved among people of good will." In a later press conference, Reagan added that the Mulford Act "would work no hardship on the honest citizen."
[1]
The bill was signed by Reagan and became
California penal code 25850 and
171c.
