The Supreme Court has a chance to stop blue-state suppression of Second Amendment rights | Washington Examiner
The justices heard oral arguments on Wednesday in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen , a case that affords the court the opportunity to strike down cynical blue-state laws that are designed to, in practice, all but erase citizens constitutional right to bear arms outside the home. At question is New York s process for granting concealed carry permits, which allow citizens to carry a firearm in public.
The New York law at the center of the case & requires anyone who wants a license to carry a concealed handgun outside of the home to show proper cause for the license, SCOTUSBlog reports . Courts in New York have defined proper cause to require applicants to show a special need to defend themselves. For instance, a person who has been the target of recurrent physical threats likely would qualify. But a general desire to protect oneself or one s property is not enough to obtain an unrestricted license to carry a concealed handgun. (Emphasis mine.)
Similar laws are on the books in many other blue states such as California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Hawaii, per SCOTUSBlog . Essentially, they allow government officials to decide who really needs to be able to exercise their Second Amendment rights and who doesn t. Even living in a high-crime area doesn t suffice in New York. Many, including the plaintiffs suing New York in the case, who pass a background check and simply wish to exercise their rights are not fully allowed to do so merely because some government bureaucrat says so.
To state the obvious, that s not how constitutional rights are supposed to work. We would never accept a regime that required arbitrary government permission to exercise free speech, for example.