On Wednesday, Justices will hear the case, which centers on New York's restrictive handgun permit law and whether challengers to the statute have a right to carry a firearm in public for self-defense. Advocates for Second Amendment rights hope the Supreme Court's 6-3 conservative majority will see the law as too restrictive, while gun control proponents have argued any drop in restrictions could lead to more violence in the streets.
The Empire State's law in question, in place since 1913, states that to carry a concealed handgun in public for self-defense, an individual applying for a permit must demonstrate "proper cause," or a real need to carry the firearm. The state issues permit under the classification of restricted — allowing the individual to carry a gun in certain circumstances — or unrestricted, allowing the individual to carry a gun anywhere not otherwise prohibited by law.
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Two private citizens, alongside the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, are challenging the law. They have alleged to the court that it “makes it effectively impossible for an ordinary, law-abiding citizen to obtain a license to carry a handgun for self-defense."
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President of the NYSRPA, Tom King, told the Washington Examiner the case amounts to "unequal protection under the law," noting New York has 62 counties where each county has a permit issuing officer who "is a judge, sometimes a sheriff."
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"You could have two or three judges in one county, and one of the judges could be anti-gun," King stated. "And if you were just unlucky enough to be assigned to him, for your pistol permit, you're not going to get a concealed carry permit. Whereas if you get one of the other judges who believe in concealed carry, you'll get it."
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The high court's last major gun-rights decisions happened in 2008 and 2010, in which the right to bear arms as an individual right was established in District of Columbia v. Heller and a national right to keep a gun at home for self-defense in McDonald v. City of Chicago, respectively.
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In September, President Biden's administration urged the Supreme Court to uphold New York's handgun restriction. The Justice Department argued that justices should defer the legislative practice of imposing gun limits to protect public safety.
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The highest court's hearing on the matter comes at a time when gun violence has surged in major cities throughout the nation.
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Former President Donald Trump's conservative appointees to the court — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett — was not on the bench during the last major gun rights ruling. The three justices have weighed on past Second Amendment rights cases, taking action on matters that could give pro-gun advocates optimism for an outcome in their favor.