Lawyers for Hawaii Gun Carry Lawsuit File Supreme Court Brief in New York Case

“It is apparently just fine for him to be taken from his home country to fight in Vietnam with high powered weaponry but then to forbid him to carry a handgun outside his home for self-defense in Hawaii.” (Brief of Amicus Curiae George K. Young in Support of Petitioners)

U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- “There is no question that the right to keep and bear arms extends outside the home,” attorneys Alan Beck and Stephen Stamboulieh argue in a friend of the court brief filed Tuesday in the Supreme Court. “To argue otherwise is to render the phrase ‘bear arms’ superfluous within the Second Amendment.”

The case is New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. City of New York, challenging restrictions on transporting licensed firearms outside the home. Beck and Stamboulieh represent George Young in his complaint against the State of Hawaii for denying him a carry permit.

Those unfamiliar with his case may wonder what it has to do with the New York action, and the answer to that is that the notoriously anti-gun Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals tied the two together. Per that court’s order in February:

“En banc proceedings are stayed and submission of this case for decision by the en banc court is deferred pending the issuance of an opinion by the United States Supreme Court in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. City of New York, No. 18-280 and further order of this Court.”

That meant Young was once more forced into rights denial limbo with a case first docketed in 2012. Per the SCOTUS brief:

“Mr. Young has now been on appeal in the Ninth Circuit since December 24, 2012 (six years, four months and twenty days) and there is still no end in sight. Mr. Young will be seventy years old this year in September.”

“It is apparently just fine for him to be taken from his home country to fight in Vietnam with high powered weaponry but then to forbid him to carry a handgun outside his home for self-defense in Hawaii,” the brief continues. “Mr. Young served his country with honor only to return and be treated as a second-class citizen by Hawaii, and unable to fully exercise his Second Amendment rights.”

And Young is not alone. Per a footnote:

“As counsel for the County openly admitted at oral argument, not a single concealed carry license has ever been granted by the County.”

That holds true for concealed carry permits in all counties, and the handful of open carry permits for the entire state have been limited to security guards as an occupational “privilege.”

“Because of inaction, this Court has allowed the lower courts all the latitude they need to render the Second Amendment a paper tiger,” the brief charges, explaining to the High Court how that has allowed infringements via a fabricated “adequate alternatives” doctrine. “Nowhere in the Second Amendment does one read about an adequate alternative to protected ‘arms’, but the lower courts routinely read these additional qualifications into the right, and then state that there has been no substantial burden.”

That, of course, is wrong, and would not be tolerated by today’s legal establishment in cases of unenumerated, court-mandated “rights” such as abortion and homosexual marriage.

“The text, history and tradition of the Second Amendment, as well as Heller, strongly supports that the right to armed self-defense applies outside the home,” the brief continues. “The lower courts have misapplied Heller’s dangerous and unusual language … Instead, the lower courts have almost universally held that this phrase applies to bearable arms, and then by judicial fiat, the court finds them too deadly for private citizen ownership.

“The dangerous and unusual doctrine applies to the manner in which the right is exercised,” the brief elaborates. “

“The longstanding prohibition on the carrying of ‘dangerous and unusual weapons’ refers to types of conduct with weapons. A necessary element of this common law crime of affray, to which the “dangerous and unusual” prohibition refers, had always required that the arms be used or carried in such manner as to terrorize the population, rather than in the manner suitable for ordinary self-defense.”

“We hope our brief convinces the Supreme Court to use the New York transport case as a vehicle to hold that the Second Amendment right to armed self-defense extends outside the home,” Alan Beck tells AmmoLand Shooting Sports News. “If the Court does so this will force the Ninth Circuit to find that Hawaii’s effective ban on handgun carry is unconstitutional.”


About David Codrea:David Codrea

David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.

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Anthony S.

Hopefully SCOTUS will slap NY State on the wrist and send a strong message to other states that their gun control laws are unconstitutional – AND – enable citizens to sue for having their rights deprived.

John rogerson

Who enforces gun laws: cops. Who arrests people in England for reading the Bible aloud in public because it was deemed hate speech: cops. Who pull people over by threat of force for not wearing seat belts or arrest them for having pills or plants: cops. Who enforces court orders because a Christian business doesn’t want to bake cakes for gay weddings on Christians want to hire only Christians in their private business: cops. Until we start faulting cops for blindly following orders and turn our attention to them nothing will get solved.

Oldmarine

Politicians are are FEDERAL CRIMINALS FOR PERJURY UNDER OATH by attacking the 2nd amendment. Why isn’t anyone charging them? I lived in Hawaii for 14 years and consider it as corrupt as old Chicago.. The syndicate is half the power there and a very dangerous place more like a different country. They ignore the Constitution and do it their own way. Its very easy to anyone from Japan or Chins to get a birth certificate there. Check that out, you will be surprised.

revjen45

“Justice delayed is justice denied.”
_W.E. Gladstone

Mark Baird

It was not against the law to carry a loaded weapon in California until 2012. Cal Penal Code 26150 (b)(2) allows open carry permits in California counties with less than 200 thousand people. A recent FOIA has revealed that no such permit has ever been issued since Open carry was banned in 2012. Concealed Carry is not a right per Peruta v San Diego…..Open Carry is banned in California PC 25850 equals a ban upon Second Amendment Liberty in California as well. There are seven or eight million gun owners in California. All we have to do is show up… Read more »

110% American

And they used to call Virginia the Communist State!!

Baldwin

Zero CCL’s issued? This guy has been waiting for a decision since 2012??? Tell me again how we are the leaders of the “free” world….