The draconian gun laws that certain states have in place have been progressively losing support.
Previously stopped at the federal level, challenges to stringent regulations governing firearms and ammunition are now brought before the Supreme Court, which not only renders rulings but also makes recommendations to subordinate courts.
A few months ago, the U.S. Supreme Court declared 6-3 that New York’s concealed carry legislation was unconstitutionally onerous, marking the court’s most significant Second Amendment ruling in nearly two decades.
The decision, according to experts, is important because it suggests that similarly strict concealed carry rules, which are mostly restricted to blue states, are also likely to be successfully challenged.
It’s anticipated that a surge of lawsuits challenging laws regulating firearms and ammunition will soon arrive.
According to MPR, “This decision is a big deal. Previously, the court had only said that the Constitution protected the ability to have a gun inside the home for self-defense. In that decision, which came down in 2008, the justices didn’t rule on how guns carried outside the home could be regulated. It took almost 15 years for the justices to come back to that question, but now they have.”
In the majority opinion for Thursday’s decision, Justice Clarence Thomas stated that the Second Amendment “protect[s] an individual’s right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home.” Therefore, according to FiveThirtyEight statues as the ones in New York, “which required people who wanted a license to carry a concealed handgun in public to show they have a good reason, are no longer allowed.”
The research continues by foreseeing a “flood” of fresh legal disputes in states with similarly stringent concealed carry regulations.
Supporters of the second amendment are also concerned about laws governing ammunition.
Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey signed legislation in 2018 that reduces magazines’ ammo capacity from 15 rounds, which had been the limit since 1990, to 10 rounds. The law had already been upheld by a lower court.
In contrast, a law in California outlaws all magazines with a capacity of more than 10 rounds; this year, an 11-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided 7–4 in favor of upholding the law.
The Supreme Court did not complete its work with the Second Amendment decision; in fact, by clearly noting that restrictive regulations need to be reviewed in lower courts, SCOTUS likely opened the door to much of the anticipated future litigation.
“The Supreme Court said Thursday that gun cases involving restrictions in Hawaii, California, New Jersey and Maryland deserve a new look following its major decision in a gun case last week,” according to the Western Journal.
“In light of last week’s ruling — which said that Americans have a right to carry a gun outside the home — lower courts should take another look at several cases that had been awaiting action by the high court, the court said. Those cases include ones about high-capacity magazines, an assault weapons ban and a state law that limits who can carry a gun outside the home,” the report noted that by returning the cases to lower courts, these laws will now be given a second look under the new standard used in Thomas’ majority decision.
The outlet continues:
“One of the cases the justices sent back to a lower court Thursday involved a Hawaii statute similar to New York’s. In that case, a panel of 11 judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled in 2021 that the right to “keep and bear arms” in the Constitution’s Second Amendment “does not guarantee an unfettered, general right to openly carry arms in public for individual self-defense.” But the high court said in its latest gun case that the Constitution protects “an individual’s right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home.” A lower court will now have to revisit the Hawaii ruling.”
The Supreme Court of the United States also ordered federal appeals courts to reexamine statutes in California and New Jersey that place restrictions on the number of rounds a magazine can hold.
The Supreme Court has previously sent a case from Maryland challenging the state’s ban on 45 different types of so-called “assault” weapons back to an appeals court.
More on this story via The Republic Brief:
In 2017, the Supreme Court had turned away a previous challenge to that law, but now are addressing it, Conservative Brief reports.
A new difference is Justice Clarence Thomas’ attention to the Second Amendment in direct relation to the existing law, without exceptions to the Constitution. CONTINUE READING…
