Supreme Court to hear major new gun control case next term on carrying weapons outside the home
Source: Washington Post
The Supreme Court announced Monday it will hear a major new gun control case next term, accepting a National Rifle Association-backed challenge that asks the court to declare there is a constitutional right to carry a weapon outside the home. The court will hear the challenge to a century-old New York gun control law in the term that begins in October. It is considering a law that requires those who seek a permit to carry a concealed weapon show a special need for self-defense. It is similar to laws in Maryland, Massachusetts and elsewhere that the court in the past has declined to review.
But the courts new conservative majority has signaled it is more receptive to Second Amendment challenges. Several justices have said they are anxious to explore gun rights first acknowledged by the court in 2008, when it ruled in District of Columbia v. Heller that individuals have the right to gun ownership for self-defense in their homes. Perhaps the single most important unresolved Second Amendment question in the time since then, the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association says in its brief to the court, is whether the Second Amendment secures the individual right to bear arms for self-defense where confrontations often occur: outside the home.
The association contends that the text, history, and tradition of the Second Amendment and this Courts binding precedents compel the conclusion that the Second Amendment does indeed secure that right. The courts consideration of the petition coincides with recent mass shootings in Georgia and Colorado that left 18 dead. While President Donald Trump opposed gun control, President Biden wants more. Biden has urged the Senate to pass broader checks on gun buyers already approved by the House, and has said he supports restrictions on certain weapons.
His administration has said it would also pursue measures that did not require congressional action. The Supreme Court previously turned down a request to review the New York laws, and the states Attorney General Letitia James (D) had asked it to do so again. The states law has existed in the same essential form since 1913 and descends from a long Anglo-American tradition of regulating the carrying of firearms in public, she wrote in a brief to the court. She said it complied with the Supreme Courts reasoning in Heller: that the Second Amendment right is not unlimited and can be subject to state regulation consistent with the historical scope of the right.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-guns-second-amendment-national-rifle-association/2021/04/26/83e865c8-a690-11eb-8c1a-56f0cb4ff3b5_story.html
bucolic_frolic
(43,286 posts)Last edited Mon Apr 26, 2021, 02:15 PM - Edit history (1)
This case has already been decided. Just taking it up tells you it's a 6-3 ruling.
Would the police support this? I doubt it. Who would want to be a cop with everyone armed?
Jedi Guy
(3,249 posts)I worked in dispatch for a department in a large-ish city in the Southwest, and they did a study that determined 70% of the cars stopped by officers contained a gun. If that filtered down to us in dispatch, you know for a fact that the uniformed officers were all aware of that little statistic.
That being the case, I wouldn't be surprised to see the association of police chiefs weigh in on this when SCOTUS hears the case.
cstanleytech
(26,319 posts)Sucks but until we can amend the Constitution laws that involve guns will always face Constitutional challenges.
hadEnuf
(2,212 posts)the government by force. They want a bloodbath.
Trust_Reality
(1,723 posts)FBaggins
(26,758 posts)I had a feeling that the 9th Circuit was trying to weigh in last month (in Young v. Hawaii) before the higher court picked this one up.
I don't think there's a way for NY to moot this one before Kavanaugh uses it to undo all such decisions.
Calista241
(5,586 posts)Unlike the last time, I doubt they can modify the law to make the case moot.
Snackshack
(2,541 posts)"Several justices have said they are anxious to explore gun rights first acknowledged by the court in 2008."
This court is broken.
Polybius
(15,476 posts)If they rule on the side of the gun lobby, will open carry be everywhere?
FBaggins
(26,758 posts)A loss would probably mean that states could no longer limit concealed carry permits to those who could show a special need. They would presumably still be able to restrict such permits to those who received specific training, passed background checks, etc.
IOW... they would shift from "may issue" to something close to "shall issue"... but mandating "open carry" is not likely in play.