Explore The NRA Universe Of Websites

U.S. Supreme Court Schedules NRA-Supported Second Amendment Case for Argument

Friday, September 20, 2019

U.S. Supreme Court Schedules NRA-Supported Second Amendment Case for Argument

In January, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a Second Amendment challenge to a gun control law for the first time in nearly 10 years. The case arose from a New York City regulation that banned city residents with “premises” handgun licenses from taking their own legally-owned firearms outside Gotham for lawful purposes. The city defended the law all the way to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, insisting it was essential to public safety. But ever since the Supreme Court agreed to hear the appeal of that decision, city and state officials in New York have been running scared, desperately maneuvering to convince the justices to dismiss it. Now, it seems, their reckoning may be nigh, as the high court has scheduled the case for argument on Dec. 2.

The lawsuit, New York State Rifle & Pistol Assoc., Inc. v. City of New York, offers a revealing look into the mindset of gun control extremists, and in particular, their refusal to acknowledge the Supreme Court’s precedents that recognize the right to keep and bear arms as a fundamental, individual liberty.

Indeed, over a decade after the Supreme Court made clear that handguns are a protected Second Amendment “arm” and cannot be banned, New York State still generally prohibits the mere possession of pistols and revolvers. State residents, however, may qualify for an “exception” to this ban by obtaining a license issued by the locality in which they reside. The difficulty of obtaining a license depends on where in the state a person lives.

New York City, to no one’s surprise, is the most onerous place to get a handgun license. For the “average” person (that is, for someone who is not well-connected to city officialdom or rich and famous) the only feasible choice is a “premises license.” That license allows a person to keep a handgun in his or her home or place of business. Even then, the process takes many months, multiple trips to police headquarters, and hundreds of dollars in mandatory fees. Licensing officials also have broad discretion to deny licenses, even when the applicant has no criminal convictions.

Until this court case arose, premises licensees could only transport their firearms outside their homes for narrowly circumscribed purposes, and only then, if the firearm were unloaded and in a locked container and separated from any ammunition. Licensees could visit a shooting range within the city itself, for example, but they could not leave the city with their own guns, even for lawful purposes like firearm training or competition or to take the gun to a second residence elsewhere in the state.

City officials tried to justify these restrictions by claiming they could not keep tabs on licensees who left New York City, although they had no evidence the licensees were causing problems with their handguns beyond city limits. The thinking seemed to be that unless New York City bureaucrats somehow monitored and documented every place licensees went with a handgun and what they did with it, the licensees must be doing something bad.

Courts in New York (including federal courts), do not like the Second Amendment, which emboldens the state’s anti-gun officials to pass ridiculous, overreaching, and punitive gun control laws like New York City’s travel ban. Thus, the ban survived judicial scrutiny all the way to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

But the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly made clear that the Second Amendment protects a fundamental, individual right to keep and bear arms – including handguns – for lawful purposes, particularly self-defense. Nevertheless, the court has since 2010 declined to hear any Second Amendment cases challenging gun control laws. In the interim, however, President Trump has appointed two new justices to the court – Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh – with strong records of taking the Second Amendment seriously.

And so it was in January that when the plaintiffs in the New York City case asked the court to review the Second Circuit’s decision upholding New York City’s travel ban, the court agreed.

New York City initially reacted with defiance, but as the reality began to sink in that they would finally have to justify their laws against serious judicial scrutiny, they began to furiously backpedal. First, the city amended its regulations to allow the plaintiffs to take their handguns to ranges and residences outside city limits. Then state officials got into the act, passing a law to underscore that handgun licensees could transport their licensed handguns for certain permissible purposes. The city then asked the court to dismiss the case, claiming they had given the plaintiffs everything they wanted.

The plaintiffs, however, urged the court to go forward, noting that the recent laws could always be changed and that New York City handgun licensees still remained subject to the anti-gun whims of city officials. Only a clear Second Amendment ruling could protect their rights in the long term.

The court responded by scheduling a hearing in October on the question of whether the case should go forward.

In the meantime, however, five anti-gun U.S. senators stuck their noses into the matter by submitting a “friend of the court” brief in August authored by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). More an unhinged political rant than a legal argument, the brief essentially accused the court of unprofessional political bias, insisted that it not hear the case, and warned that the court might need to be “restructured” to be more favorable to Democrats.

Perhaps it is a merely a coincidence that it took the court just over a month since that brief was filed to schedule a case that had been pending since January.

Nevertheless, it is not a forgone conclusion that the court will even hear the case in December, much less that it will issue a sweeping ruling on the right to keep and bear arms that will finally bring Second Amendment deniers like New York City to heel. The case could still end at the October procedural hearing without being decided on the merits.

Will the Supreme Court hear the case in December en route to a sweeping ruling on arms? It remains unclear. What is clear is the need for a lawful ruling the finally brings Second Amendment deniers like New York City to heel.

IN THIS ARTICLE
Supreme Court NYSRPA
TRENDING NOW
Federal Legislation Introduced to Ban “Gas Operated Semiautomatic” Firearms

Friday, December 1, 2023

Federal Legislation Introduced to Ban “Gas Operated Semiautomatic” Firearms

Joe Biden has long insisted he would ban what he calls “assault weapons” and has enlisted a motley succession of extreme anti-gun legislators to aid in that effort. Now, Senators Angus King (IND-ME) and Martin ...

Federal Judge in Colorado Insists There is No Second Amendment Right to Buy a Gun

News  

Monday, November 20, 2023

Federal Judge in Colorado Insists There is No Second Amendment Right to Buy a Gun

Honest people can disagree with the Founders’ decision to enshrine the Second Amendment within the Bill of Rights. They cannot, however, pretend that decision never happened. For much of the 20th Century, however, gun control activists ...

Following Terrorist Attack, Israel Relaxes Gun Laws and Arms Civilians

News  

Monday, October 16, 2023

Following Terrorist Attack, Israel Relaxes Gun Laws and Arms Civilians

Following an unprecedented terrorist attack on civilians that indiscriminately targeted even the elderly, women, and children, Israel has loosened its gun laws and is distributing firearms to civilians. As of press time, the number of victims killed in ...

Virginia: Omnibus Gun Control Bills Filed Ahead of the 2024 Legislative Session

Thursday, November 30, 2023

Virginia: Omnibus Gun Control Bills Filed Ahead of the 2024 Legislative Session

In Virginia, the pre-filing of legislation has begun for the 2024 session and anti-gun legislators are wasting no time in aggressively laying out their agenda. 

Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Strikes Maryland’s Handgun Qualification License Requirement in NRA-Backed Case.

Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Strikes Maryland’s Handgun Qualification License Requirement in NRA-Backed Case.

On Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals ruled that Maryland’s Handgun Qualification License (“HQL”) requirement is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment. 

Seventh Circuit Strains to Uphold Illinois’ Gun and Magazine Ban

News  

Monday, November 13, 2023

Seventh Circuit Strains to Uphold Illinois’ Gun and Magazine Ban

At this point, gun owners and other productive Americans don’t anticipate much good news out of Chicago. On November 3, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit lived up to those expectations when it upheld Illinois’ ...

Canadians on Canada’s Gun Control Measures: Expensive, Ineffective, Political Posturing

News  

Wednesday, September 6, 2023

Canadians on Canada’s Gun Control Measures: Expensive, Ineffective, Political Posturing

More than three years have passed since Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a ban and mandatory confiscation (“buyback”) of what he called “military grade assault weapons,” which was followed by a national handgun “freeze” ...

Kentucky: Senator Westerfield Expected to Introduce Red Flag Legislation for a Hearing this Month

Friday, December 1, 2023

Kentucky: Senator Westerfield Expected to Introduce Red Flag Legislation for a Hearing this Month

The Interim Joint Committee on Judiciary is expected to hear legislation on "Red Flag" laws later this month as a result of legislation to be filed by Senator Whitney Westerfield (R-3). While an official agenda ...

SCOTUS Bruen Decision (Unsurprisingly) Popular with American People

News  

Monday, November 20, 2023

SCOTUS Bruen Decision (Unsurprisingly) Popular with American People

When the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) released its decision last year in the landmark New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen case, anti-gun extremist organizations had a collective conniption ...

Updates to ATF Final Rule on Stabilizing Braces

News  

Monday, January 30, 2023

Updates to ATF Final Rule on Stabilizing Braces

On Monday, January 30, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives’ (ATF) published the final Factoring Criteria for Firearms with Attached “Stabilizing Braces” rule for public inspection in the federal register.

MORE TRENDING +
LESS TRENDING -

More Like This From Around The NRA

NRA ILA

Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the "lobbying" arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.