The United States Supreme Court recently stated that they will hear the largest Second Amendment case since they ruled on District of Columbia v. Heller in 2008. The case brought by New York State Rifle & Pistol Association challenges a New York law prohibiting citizens from carrying a firearm outside of their home without a license. The Rifle & Pistol Association is challenging this law because New York state makes it very difficult for residents to obtain a license.
“The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted limited to the following question: Whether the State’s denial of petitioners’ applications for concealed-carry licenses for self-defense violated the Second Amendment,” the court said in an order.
New York State Gun Laws
Further, New York forces residents who are applying for a license to show that a “proper cause exists” for them to be eligible for the permit. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals—which resides over New York, Connecticut, and Vermont—ruled in August that the New York law is constitutional.
Currently, California, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Rhode Island have firearm restrictions similar to the New York Law. In most cases, for a New York resident to satisfy the “proper cause” that is required to obtain a license, they must be going hunting, to target practice, or those who can demonstrate a need for self-protection. The self-protection category is further broken down as those such as bank messengers carrying money or a small business owner who would like to keep a gun in their store.
Most of the states that have stringent gun regulations have large populations—California, New Jersey, and New York have more than one-fifth of the U.S. population alone. If concealed-carry permits were easier to access in the above states, independent researchers suggest that 10 percent of residents in these states would obtain a concealed-carry permit.
Past Second Amendment Rulings
The Supreme Court has not ruled on a Second Amendment case in over a decade and those cases had a highly divided split court. However, since the Supreme Court gave their last Second Amendment ruling, the Supreme Court has become much more conservative as the court now has a 6 – 3 conservative majority.
In April 2020, the Supreme Court remanded a court challenge on New York City gun ban due to the law being revised. However, at the time of the ruling, Justice Brett Kavanaugh stated that the Supreme Court takes another Second Amendment case. Kavanaugh’s reasoning for this recommendation was that he believed lower courts may not be properly applying the older Supreme Court Second Amendment rulings.
Though the Supreme Court has a conservative majority, the two newest Justices—Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett—have both adopted narrow views of what Second Amendment regulations are permissible.
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