<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1654106158660,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000177-1b39-d2c7-af7f-5fbf13ff0004","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1654106158660,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000177-1b39-d2c7-af7f-5fbf13ff0004","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_54106046", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1023197"} }); ","_id":"00000181-2067-daca-a3b7-726785440000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedThe Supreme Court will soon issue an opinion in a major Second Amendment case over whether New Yorkers have the right to carry concealed handguns in public for self-defense, which many legal experts say could lead to the expansion of gun rights.
Justices on the high court, which has a 6-3 Republican-appointed majority, are expected to issue an opinion no later than late June or early July in the case New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen. The case involves two men who were denied a special need or “proper cause” license to carry a concealed pistol or revolver that is required under a New York law that has been in place since 1913.
Carrie Severino, the president of the prominent conservative group the Judicial Crisis Network, told the Washington Examiner the challenge with New York’s restrictive law is that it “effectively makes it impossible” to obtain an open or concealed carry permit “without having some specific threat against you.”
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“The idea is you kind of need to have some specific threat against you. So, living in a really dangerous neighborhood doesn’t matter,” Severino said, arguing that the Second Amendment is broadly meant to apply to the general public.
The plaintiffs who challenged the law, Robert Nash and Brandon Koch, filed their lawsuit after the Empire State rejected their concealed carry applications over insufficiently demonstrating a special need for a permit despite having already passed required background checks for gun licenses for hunting and target practice.
During oral arguments in November, Justice Samuel Alito, one of the most conservative justices on the bench, pointed to an uptick of illegal gun seizures in the state in recent months despite increasing record incidents of gun violence.
“How many illegal guns were seized by the New York Police Department last year? Do you have any idea?” he asked New York Solicitor General Barbara Underwood, who said the number was likely substantial.
Alito furthered his point: “All these people with illegal guns, they’re on the subway, they’re walking around the streets. But the ordinary, hard-working, law-abiding people I mentioned, no, they can’t be armed?”
Similar arguments were reflected by the other Republican-appointed justices on the Supreme Court, who seemed skeptical of New York’s strict limits on the carrying of guns outside the home. The court’s Democratic-appointed wing, composed of Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Stephen Breyer, appeared more in favor of the public safety justification behind the state’s law.
The case of Bruen marks the first time in over a decade the Supreme Court has taken up a significant gun-related issue since McDonald v. Chicago in 2010 and District of Columbia v. Heller in 2008. In both cases, justices ruled in a 5-4 split that ultimately found the right to bear arms for the purpose of self-defense remains applicable to the states in McDonald and the right to personal defense was one such “fundamental” and “deeply rooted” right in Heller.
“New York has what’s called a ‘may issue’ regime, that is, they’ll give you a license to carry a gun if you show some sort of special need,” said Josh Blackman, a law professor at the South Texas College of Law. Only eight states other than New York have such regimes on gun laws, including California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Rhode Island.
In regard to whether there is a national impact that could arise if the high court curtails New York’s concealed carry law, Blackman said “most state laws will be totally unaffected” since a majority of states only require applicants to pass a background check.
Less than two weeks after a deadly mass shooting that killed 10 people in Buffalo, New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul vowed last month to hold an emergency legislative session if the Supreme Court returns a ruling that the law is unconstitutional.
Blackman told the Washington Examiner there wouldn’t be much legislation to pass “as a practical matter.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
What’s more likely, according to Blackman, is that state lawmakers will make it “impossible” to carry firearms in specific sensitive locations throughout New York City regardless of whether concealed carry permits become more accessible for future applicants.
“They’ll designate basically every single place in New York City as a sensitive place … no subway, no buildings, nowhere to go. We won’t be able to carry within 100 feet of a school, which is virtually everywhere, right? They’re gonna make it virtually impossible,” Blackman said.
