When the Supreme Court Struck Down The Restrictive New York Gun Licensing Law, it was an important reiteration of 2nd Amendment protections. But the battles will continue at the state level and the lower federal courts, because the opponents of the 2nd Amendment are hard at work, including in Rhode Island, to deprive citizens of their constitutional rights. DOJ already has signaled that it will do whatever it can to limit the impact of the SCOTUS ruling.
One aspect of the SCOTUS ruling that is underreported is that in orders entered by the Court in other cases, it vacated anti-2nd Amendment lower court decisions and remanded for further proceedings. Some of those cases involved the types of limitations, e.g. on magazine capacity and age, that are at the core of efforts to undermine the SCOTUS decision in blue states.
The Gun Rights Foundation has a good summary:
The Supreme Court just struck down four anti-gun lower court rulings:
- A 4th Circuit ruling upholding Maryland’s “assault weapons” ban
- Two rulings (9th Circuit and 3rd Circuit) upholding mag bans in California and New Jersey
- A 9th Circuit ruling upholding Hawaii’s de facto public carry ban (similar to New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. HI is another may issue state that essentially banned carry)
SCOTUS granted cert in all four of these decisions, and told the lower courts “You got it wrong in all of these. We’re striking down your opinions. Go do it again, and do it based on the actual text of the Second Amendment and the history/tradition of the right to keep and bear arms.”Essentially, those courts have to review those state laws in light of Bruen and issue new rulings using the new “text, history, and tradition” framework.They may try to wriggle out of it (they almost certainly will) but if they obey the Supreme Court, there’s no way any of these state laws can withstand actual Second Amendment scrutiny.This spells doom for mag bans, assault weapons bans, and public carry bans.
While this analysis makes sense legally, remember it took over a decade for SCOTUS to take up another major 2nd Amendment case after Heller and McDonald.
A reader sent me a copy of new gun legislation introduced in New York that sets up a series of barriers that will completely undermine the SCOTUS ruling. The NY Times reports, N.Y. Democrats to Pass New Gun Laws in Response to Supreme Court Ruling:
One week after the Supreme Court struck down a law limiting the spread of concealed handguns in New York, state Democratic leaders on Friday were expected to respond with new measures that would prohibit people from carrying firearms in many public settings deemed “sensitive places.”The ban would apply to places like colleges, hospitals, subways, parks, stadiums and even Times Square — a last-minute addition in the late-night negotiations. It would also extend to any private property, such as a bar, restaurant or home, unless the property owner expressly allows guns, which they can do by placing a sign on their premises….Legislative leaders and the governor appeared to have reached an agreement on a list of locations where guns would be banned: health care facilities; houses of worship; colleges and universities; places where children gather, such as schools, day care centers, playgrounds, parks and zoos; public transportation; places where alcohol or cannabis is consumed; and theaters, concerts, casinos and other entertainment venues….Ms. Hochul said that the expansive list of places where guns would be banned was crafted to reassure New Yorkers “that when they go there to gather, work, places of worship, polling places and larger gathering spaces, they don’t need to worry about someone being right there next to them having a weapon.”
I fully expected this would be a tactic, since SCOTUS recognizes restrictions in sensitive places, make almost everywhere sensitive. Criminals, you know the ones who shoot and kill people, will still carry their illegal guns in all these places.
But wait, there’s more, SCOTUS struck down the prior law as giving too much discretion to the state, but the new legislation has plenty of fuzzy, judgmental standards that reestablish discretion. The Times continues:
The gun bill adds new requirements for New Yorkers to receive a concealed carry permit, including 16 hours of training on how to handle a handgun, two hours of firing range training, an in-person interview and a written exam, as well as a review of social media accounts.
The legislation clearly is intended to thwart the SCOTUS decision, guaranteeing more litigation. State governors like Kathy Hochul in New York are banking on the limited SCOTUS docket to evade the ruling, even if they ultimately lose, in the interim they have violated citizens’ constitutional rights. Expect similar tactics in all blue states.
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