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Shop NowThe Supreme Court has officially ruled that Americans have a fundamental right to carry a handgun in public, in a landmark decision.
This 6-3 ruling eliminates the more than century-old New York law that had required an individual to provide a legitimate reasoning for self-defense in order to receive a permit to carry a concealed weapon outside of their own home.
The opinion asserts that the 2nd and 14th amendments “protect an individual’s right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home.”
Justice Clarence Thomas references two previous gun cases in the Court’s opinion:
“In this case, petitioners and respondents agree that ordinary, law-abiding citizens have a similar right to carry handguns publicly for their self-defense. We too agree, and now hold, consistent with Heller and McDonald, that the Second and Fourteenth Amendments protect an individual’s right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home,”
“Because the State of New York issues public-carry licenses only when an applicant demonstrates a special need for self-defense, we conclude that the State’s licensing regime violates the Constitution.”
The Supreme Court STRIKES DOWN a New York gun-control law that required people to show “proper cause” to get a license to carry a concealed handgun outside the home. The vote is 6-3. https://t.co/jA2Gl7lTiG
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) June 23, 2022
New York’s conceal carry law was very strict and dependent on the officials who had approved it, which made the process to obtain a permit incredibly challenging. The majority’s argument stated that the Second Amendment should not be held to a lower standard when compared to the other rights.
Thomas defined “sensitive places” in New York as any location “where people typically congregate and where law-enforcement and other public-safety professionals are presumptively available. We do think respondents err in their attempt to characterize New York’s proper-cause requirement as a ’sensitive-place’ law,” Thomas wrote.
Thomas argued that this concept is excessively inclusive.
Simply put, he commented, “There is no historical basis for New York to effectively declare the island of Manhattan a “sensitive place” because it is crowded and generally protected by the New York City Police Department.”
Government officials are not allowed to infringe upon the right to publicly carry a firearm for self-defense, as the Second Amendment isn’t a “second-class right” determined by government permission.
Most importantly, as stated by Thomas, it is also not a right only to be exercised “after demonstrating to government officials some special needs.”
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Sources: Westernjournal, Indy100, Deseret
