U.S. Supreme Court Schedules NRA-Supported Second Amendment Case for Argument

Knife Rights' NYC Gravity Knife Case Appeal Headed To U.S. Supreme Court
U.S. Supreme Court Schedules NRA-Supported Second Amendment Case for Argument

USA – -(Ammoland.com)- In January, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a Second Amendment challenge to a gun control law for the first time in nearly 10 years.

The case arose from a New York City regulation that banned city residents with “premises” handgun licenses from taking their own legally-owned firearms outside Gotham for lawful purposes. The city defended the law all the way to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, insisting it was essential to public safety. But ever since the Supreme Court agreed to hear the appeal of that decision, city and state officials in New York have been running scared, desperately maneuvering to convince the justices to dismiss it.

Now, it seems, their reckoning may be nigh, as the high court has scheduled the case for argument on Dec. 2.

The lawsuit, New York State Rifle & Pistol Assoc., Inc. v. City of New York, offers a revealing look into the mindset of gun control extremists, and in particular, their refusal to acknowledge the Supreme Court’s precedents that recognize the right to keep and bear arms as a fundamental, individual liberty.

Indeed, over a decade after the Supreme Court made clear that handguns are a protected Second Amendment “arm” and cannot be banned, New York State still generally prohibits the mere possession of pistols and revolvers. State residents, however, may qualify for an “exception” to this ban by obtaining a license issued by the locality in which they reside. The difficulty of obtaining a license depends on where in the state a person lives.

New York City, to no one’s surprise, is the most onerous place to get a handgun license. For the “average” person (that is, for someone who is not well-connected to city officialdom or rich and famous) the only feasible choice is a “premises license.” That license allows a person to keep a handgun in his or her home or place of business. Even then, the process takes many months, multiple trips to police headquarters, and hundreds of dollars in mandatory fees. Licensing officials also have broad discretion to deny licenses, even when the applicant has no criminal convictions.

Until this court case arose, premises licensees could only transport their firearms outside their homes for narrowly circumscribed purposes, and only then, if the firearm were unloaded and in a locked container and separated from any ammunition. Licensees could visit a shooting range within the city itself, for example, but they could not leave the city with their own guns, even for lawful purposes like firearm training or competition or to take the gun to a second residence elsewhere in the state.

City officials tried to justify these restrictions by claiming they could not keep tabs on licensees who left New York City, although they had no evidence the licensees were causing problems with their handguns beyond city limits. The thinking seemed to be that unless New York City bureaucrats somehow monitored and documented every place licensees went with a handgun and what they did with it, the licensees must be doing something bad.

Courts in New York (including federal courts), do not like the Second Amendment, which emboldens the state’s anti-gun officials to pass ridiculous, overreaching, and punitive gun control laws like New York City’s travel ban. Thus, the ban survived judicial scrutiny all the way to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

But the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly made clear that the Second Amendment protects a fundamental, individual right to keep and bear arms – including handguns – for lawful purposes, particularly self-defense. Nevertheless, the court has since 2010 declined to hear any Second Amendment cases challenging gun control laws. In the interim, however, President Trump has appointed two new justices to the court – Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh – with strong records of taking the Second Amendment seriously.

And so it was in January that when the plaintiffs in the New York City case asked the court to review the Second Circuit’s decision upholding New York City’s travel ban, the court agreed.

New York City initially reacted with defiance, but as the reality began to sink in that they would finally have to justify their laws against serious judicial scrutiny, they began to furiously backpedal. First, the city amended its regulations to allow the plaintiffs to take their handguns to ranges and residences outside city limits. Then state officials got into the act, passing a law to underscore that handgun licensees could transport their licensed handguns for certain permissible purposes. The city then asked the court to dismiss the case, claiming they had given the plaintiffs everything they wanted.

The plaintiffs, however, urged the court to go forward, noting that the recent laws could always be changed and that New York City handgun licensees still remained subject to the anti-gun whims of city officials. Only a clear Second Amendment ruling could protect their rights in the long term.

The court responded by scheduling a hearing in October on the question of whether the case should go forward.

In the meantime, however, five anti-gun U.S. senators stuck their noses into the matter by submitting a “friend of the court” brief in August authored by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). More an unhinged political rant than a legal argument, the brief essentially accused the court of unprofessional political bias, insisted that it not hear the case, and warned that the court might need to be “restructured” to be more favorable to Democrats.

Perhaps it is a merely a coincidence that it took the court just over a month since that brief was filed to schedule a case that had been pending since January.

Nevertheless, it is not a forgone conclusion that the court will even hear the case in December, much less that it will issue a sweeping ruling on the right to keep and bear arms that will finally bring Second Amendment deniers like New York City to heel. The case could still end at the October procedural hearing without being decided on the merits.

Will the Supreme Court hear the case in December en route to a sweeping ruling on arms? It remains unclear. What is clear is the need for a lawful ruling that finally brings Second Amendment deniers like New York City to heel.


National Rifle Association Institute For Legislative Action (NRA-ILA)

About:
Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the “lobbying” arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Visit: www.nra.org

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tetejaun

All ‘gun control laws’ are un-Constitutional: Article 6, U.S. Constitution “The Constitution…shall be the supreme law of the land”. Therefore, no federal or state legislative law, Executive Order or local decree may limit, deny, change or modify the Constitution. THAT is called the ‘Supremacy Clause’. Article 6 continues “All laws must conform to and be made pursuant to the Constitution”. Therefore, any federal or state legislative law, Executive Order or local decree not in 100% harmony with the U.S. Constitution, is null & void. When Americans obey the un-Constitutional ‘gun control laws’, they tell the tyrant they will accept any… Read more »

Courageous Lion - Hear Me Roar - Jus Meum Tuebor

Some of us runaway slaves have drawn lines in the sand that IF the red coat enforcers of these elite “edicts” , which is all they are, want to enforce them, we will aim for the spot between their eyes.

jack mac

We know what our constitutionally codified rights are and what infringement is. We know that our right to arms is that of we the people and it is infringed. People dressed in black robes will not convince us otherwise. The legal jargon of “prey to the court” is often use in proceedings. It best be accepted that we do not prey to human beings and we are aware that out of court settlement may be required. We are reaching the ends the rope. The rope with one end for holding and the other for hanging. We need to keep control… Read more »

WP

Please don’t feed trolls. It is always best to starve them to death.

Speaking of death, when traitors begin paying the proper price for their constant assault on Liberty, Freedom, and The Constitution, this shit WILL STOP!

Jim

NOW WE KNOW WHY the recent Socialist Democrat effort to attack Justice Kavanaugh and try to get him neutered or off the bench with bull shit charges is going on. If you think our country is not in great and immediate danger from these high level left wing political nut cases–you better think again

Wild Bill

@jh45gun, True, but I don’t know how to craft an “anti-high level, left wing, nut case” law.

Ryben Flynn

There is nothing to stop NYC from reinstating the Law after “modifying” it to allow residents to transport their firearms outside the City, hoping to get the case dismissed. This is Democrat trickery. Change the Law, convince the Court to dismiss, then change the Law back, and start all over.

Get Out

IMOA, SCOTUS should strike down the unconstitutional regulation by a vote of 9/0. While they’re at it SCOTUS should strike down the rest of those unconstitutional gun laws and red flag laws. Those five anti-gun U.S. senators should be charged and jailed for threatening federal justices to restructure the court if they don’t vote their way too.

Wild Bill

@GO, I have not heard anything, but if an official of the BATFE said that or wrote that admission, then someone else has recorded it and will be using it in court.

Courageous Lion - Hear Me Roar - Jus Meum Tuebor

All the animals on the farm are equal. It’s just that some are more equal then the rest. Paraphrase from “Animal Farm” by George Orwell. If New Yorkers are any example of what the majority of Americans are…we are screwed. We are a nation of armed SLAVES and that’s the plain fact. And a lot of us are running way and they don’t like ARMED RUNAWAY SLAVES. Who needs them to rule over we the people? Why do the people of New York put up with this tyrannical BOVINE EXCREMENT? I guess when it boils down to it life is… Read more »

Patrick Henry famously said, “Give me liberty or give me death.” Modern “Americans” say, “Give me a Big Mac (or a veggieburger) and a Starbucks, and don’t hurt me or offend me.” Glad that I am getting along in years. I had a taste of a vibrant and proud, land of the free and the home of the brave, but now that it wants to be the land of the freebies and the home of the depraved, it’s hard to be very enthusiastic about the future. Real men and women are in decline these days, replaced by people who don’t… Read more »

Firewagon

Absotootly! As you say, “I am getting along in years” – not all that willingly, just the alternative, dead for eternity, is not the bus I wanna ride right at the moment! America today, however, is definitely NOT the country I grew up in!! Kids NEVER were killing other kids in any numbers, never mind in near genocidal ones! Drug use/abuse did not begin until the early to mid ’60s – today, 174 die EVERY DAY, and another 264 are killed through abortion, DAILY. NEVER heard about any school being shot up – took our .22s on the bus to… Read more »

Wild Bill

@Wagon, Fire up, brother! If you got grandkids, furry kids, or neighborhood kids tell them stuff, teach em stuff, and have lots of witnesses around!

Charlie Foxtrot

It would be the NRA’s very first SCOTUS win, if it goes that way. The total financial cost for this litigation was probably below $1M. The NRA made over $1B in the last 3 years. Imagine if the NRA would put its money to good use and fight every gun law on the books, instead of buying suits and a mansion for Wayne LaPiere and lining the pockets of Marion Hammer. Instead, the NRA only spenda $1M/year or 0.25% of its annual revenue on 2A litigation. It did spent over $20M (and counting) in litigation to protect Wayne LaPiere. The… Read more »

ochwill

First SCOTUIS win????????!!!!!!!!!! Where have you been the last 50 years Vladimir???????? America is awash in guns thanks in no small part to SCOTUS, Heller and fake patriotism second amendment gun sales propaganda. Scat Boris.
Take the fraud elsewhere.

Charlie Foxtrot

It would be the NRA’s very first SCOTUS win! The NRA did not win Heller or McDonald. You clearly have no clue, troll!

Wild Bill

@CF, Apparently a certain propagandist thinks that true patriotism is surrendering one’s rights to government, and that there were no gun sales before the Heller decision. Too much sugar in his latte (latae, latay, expresso?).

tomcat

@ Wild Bill, We haven’t heard from him in a while so I assume he has been let out of the mental institution or he has forgotten to take his meds again. He is nothing but negative entertainment.

Wild Bill

@Tcat, Yes, it takes time to tunnel out of the asylum!

tomcat

@ Wild Bill To bad he made it out!

tetejaun

HILLARY was in cahoots with the Russians, her BEST buddies.
How easily you ignore her treason. Poor coward commie scum.

Will Flatt

Shut up you dumba$$ Tory. You dont know s#!t from shinola.

BowserB

Will, you’re showing your age. Probably you and I, plus a few other old guys are the only ones on this thread familiar with Shinola. And most of us were converted to Kiwi in the military.

tomcat

I had heard that phrase a number of times when growing up but not in a long time. I don’t know if it was a regional thing or just old.I grew up in Indiana and that is where WF is from.

Will Flatt

Yeah “don’t know sh!t from shinola” was a saying in America back when common sense was actually common. And yeah it does reveal our age. And yes, I was raised on Kiwi!! My dad was a Gary cop from the 60’s to the 80’s as a certain Demorat mayor ruined the city, and later when I was in ROTC in high school and eventually when I joined the Indiana Univ. PD, I got lots of experience putting a spit shine on my uniform shoes & boots. Lots of kids today don’t even know WTF a spit shine is! Honestly I… Read more »

tomcat

@ WF I know what you mean, the boy scouts even have to have girls in their camp now. Everything is becoming sissified and the real men are few and far between these days.

Finnky

@TC – Gosh, I’ve always found the presence of females to bring out certain masculine traits. For the young it is often braggadocio (expressed as stupid showing off and/or risk taking) – while at slightly older ages women bring out a man’s need to be strong and protective. Maybe because I’m a bit younger and maybe one of those you refer to as “sissified” – but not being terribly alpha I have no need to demonstrate masculinity to other men, just ignore them and either go alone or seek women. As a younger dating man, masculinity was a tool to… Read more »

Finnky

@B46 – I’m no spring chicken – and I’m only familiar with Kiwi because my parents had it & I imagine used it at some point. Just how long ago was Shinola in use?
OTOH was never in the military and only my cowboy boots ever deserved a shine. Most of leathers received silicon or beeswax protective treatment when I’ve done anything at all.

Donttreadonme

Its awash in guns because its supposed to be you nitwit. If not for citizens having guns we wouldnt be a country right now.

The primary reason for private gun ownership is self defense and defense against a tyrannical government. Apparently, its needed because we have many tyrants trying to take them away.

WilliamR

Dear comrade, if I took the logic used to make killing unborn part of the constitution then I and all law abiding legal citizens would be allowed to possess the exact same arms as our military and government. When the founding fathers set the second amendment to paper they made no limits. The did not exclude any arm capable of firing a projectile. At that time American citizens could possess the same weapons of war as our military and government. You dont want that do you. A pure interpretation of the ammendment.

Poppy Wayne

Brothers…don’t feed the troll. He knows not what he speaks of & just is trying to generate hostility. In other words…f@#k him.

Wild Bill

@Poppy, you are spot on. The agitprop is just trying to generate responses.
More people in the US die of recreational drug overdose than die of violence where a firearm is used. Why does he not work of banning that?

Laddyboy

@WB; Ban the “recreational drug use”. Perchance he will join the IDIOTS who are partaking of the poisoning recreation.

Wild Bill

@Laddy, Ahhh, yes. I see the wisdom of it!

Firewagon

LOL! Will be interesting to see if the vaunted (not) ‘Supremes’ continue their attempt at revising and amending that one declarative sentence? The last ‘decree’ went something like: “The People Retain the Right to Own/Have/Carry a gun “IN THE HOME (my emphasis)!” Nothing like ‘adding’ two or three words to that “right to keep and bear” sentence. Those HIGHLY intelligent writers of the Constitution and its Amendments did not FAIL to ‘designate’ what arms, or any ‘place,’ such arms the people had the right to bear, in order to give some ‘future’ “interpreter” the ability to designate either! These anti-gun,… Read more »

jack mac

Pardon me for getting of subject, but what has been said about the ATF admitting it lacked authority to issue the bump stock ban, around the 19th this month?

Wild Bill

@jm, I have not heard anything, but if an official of the BATFE said that or wrote that admission, then someone else has recorded it and will be using it in court.

Bill

Let us pray for full justice and peace- keeping so that good guys can stop the bad guys!

jack mac

Let us take action to stop the worst guys, those who make the right infringing laws.

freewill

Shall not be infringed has never been argued!, Its the Bill of Rights!, Theres no way our founders intended for regulate to mean government control!, Regulate also means, adjust to a particular standard, rate amount degree, theres no reason to believe in one sentence government control and then specify not be infringed!

Bill

With what we’ve seen from the IG and Gowdey and several other who were supposed to be “our friends” is anyone really holding out hope that anything is going to go the legal way and be settled through the use of any court? How can anyone have any faith in our system (of control and oppression)? I cant believe that anybody is on our side because we are the tampons that every single politician (of any real influence) uses during their cycle and then throws away, happens every time and yet everybody thinks that 2 new SCJs is somehow gonna… Read more »

Courageous Lion - Hear Me Roar - Jus Meum Tuebor

I noted the “guts” on our side from the documentary done on the disarming of the residents of New Orleans after Katrina. Yea, we’ll do well against them when the time comes. Even though we outnumber them 1000 to one, We couldn’t organize a militia to combat them with the odds they are outnumbered so they will come after US at 100 to 1. The rest will sit by and hope they don’t come for them next. I live in a nation of WIMPS that put up with their labor being stolen via Fed notes and the IRS. That put… Read more »

ochwill

NO compromise gun lobby in Washington. Translation. Guns ebverhweghere for everyone and the heck with gun safety studies. 400 million guns and counting. Many of them human killing weapons war owned by a largely untrained, unsafe, unvetted populace. What could possibly go wrong??? Gun activists opposed to gun safety measyures are the worst kind of liars and killers.

tetejaun

I do enjoy the complete ignorance and lies of your illiterate posts.
ALL you have are LIES and COWARDICE, Boris.
By the Way, ALL mass shooters/mass murderers have been DEMOCRATS for the last 22 years, Boris.

Wild Bill

@TT, “Guns ebverhweghere …” And this jewel: “…a largely untrained, unsafe, unvetted populace…” He knows not his own countrymen nor the language that we speak. Oswill the coolaid maker.

Will Flatt

Hey O’swill, WHY are you here?? You are obviously an antigun libtard with sh!t for brains, why don’t you take your dumb azz over to Vox or Daily Kos where you can commisserate with fellow NPC’s?? Now be a good little boy and GTFO of here!

BowserB

In United States v. Miller 1939, SCOTUS declared that weapons suitable for the militia ARE protected by the 2nd Amendment for personal ownership. Take that case, and we should all be able to buy machine guns, mortars, LAW’s. The NFA and all the federals laws limiting firearms ownership are unconstitutional.

Wild Bill

@Bowser, Yes, yes, and yes!

WilliamR

Yes pay the tax stamp$$ and under go the ATF colonoscopy you can have military grade weapons.

WilliamR

The funny thing about folk like you is when the stuff hits the fan or life gets very real you all look for a second amendment supporter to protect your arse. Go have another soy latte be secure in the fact that we will protect even the panty waste pos like you.

Laddyboy

IDJIOT!!!!!!!

mikeL

OW…..when the shit hits the fan, I will make it a point to see to it that not one of us 400 million sees to it you are protected. Its idiots like you that whined to the teacher Billy was shooting spit wads at you. Grow a pair and man up. Or, just keep bending over….

ochwill

If the NRA supports it , you can bet that whatever provision it is that they support makes it easier to buy guns and ammo in the USA for criminals, police and regular Americans. They get to sell firearms to everyone….What a racket !!!!!! Plus, they get to wrap themselves in our flag and claim that they’re being patriotic. Meanwhile America has the worst per capita gun violence rate in the developed world BY FAR and the gun lobby looks the other way as they propagate their guns everywhere for everyone sales and marketing fake patriotism sales pitch. Glocks for… Read more »

tetejaun

I find it amazing that a mindless coward communist democrat like you can even FIND this blog.
Your ignorant post reads like the lies from Sarah Brady’s communist rantings.
You keep sucking for cowardice and communism, yellow coward scum.
We are LAUGHING at your cowardice and ignorance.
When is your mommy going to kick you out of her basement?

StreetSweeper

It’s obvious you have no idea what you’re writing about.

LibertyToad

You’re cherry picking your stats and only looking at one side of the issue.

First of all, the US has less violent crime than many developed nations, England for example. Second, you intentionally ignored that fact that the US has far, far more legal Defensive Gun Uses than any other developed nation. These DGU’s are law abiding citizens, lawfully using a weapon to protect homes and families.

The fact that you are only looking at one side of the issue, instead of both sides, reveals your bias. This makes your reasoning fallacious.

Wild Bill

@Liberty, Have you met Ochwill (aka O swill)? He is the unabashed king of agitprop statistics, here. He also thinks that the NRA sells guns.

Dave in Fairfax

WB, Despite his backstory, which I don’t believe, I wonder where he’s really from.

Some guy

China, most likely….. The DNC/antifa treason machine is tight with the chicoms…… Just look into bidens kid.

Donttreadonme

Time to ban cars, they kill more people than guns each year, and pollute the climate (you lefties love that stuff). Lets ban swimming pools as more people die from drowning every year than guns. And the list goes on and on.

Wild Bill

@Dont, And ban CNN news, more people die of boredom watching CNN, every year, than die from guns, each year!

Laddyboy

@WB; I gave you an ^ although I do not watch the CIA’s PROPAGANDA station. There are many other reputable channels that are telling the truth with FACTS. You gave me a good laugh. Thank You.

Wild Bill

@Laddy, A Jewish ATF agent, A Norweigian ATF agent and a Polish ATF agent walk into a bar … !
Haa cha cha, I got a million of em!

Finnky

@WB – I doubt that many people die of boredom, but I imagine sitting sedately while letting one’s mind rot – does contribute to coronary heart disease. Have not seen boredom listed as a major cause of death in US, but if memory serves heart attack dwarfs all accidents and violence combined. OTOH mindlessly replying on these pages is probably contributing to my own sedentary life style as well as wasting time during which I should be focused on work. My excuse is that it is easier to think about work following some minor mental stimulation provided by all the… Read more »

Courageous Lion - Hear Me Roar - Jus Meum Tuebor

Cars are not a threat to tyrants. Military style rifles ARE. And the powers that be are listening to the armed slaves sharpen their pitchforks and lighting their torches and are getting nervous…THAT is why they want the rifles. Because WE are going to massacre their asses if they step over some of the lines drawn in the sand.

@CL – Rifles barely register as a direct threat to tyrants. They can however pose a threat to tyrants servants, and subservience of the enslaved masses. Long term threat to orderly social control is the threat with which they are concerned.

JoeUSooner

The National Rifle Association does NOT sell firearms (or ammunition). Not any firearms. Not any time, anywhere. Your ignorance and stupidity are so monumental that you are in dire need of immediate psychiatric treatment, and you must not be allowed out in public without a keeper!

Some guy

Garbage like this ochwill is a prime example of the cancer eating the soul of America. The time for talk is passed. They want a civil war let’s give it to them in spades.

Wild Bill

@Some, Lets let Trump torture the “O’swills” for a while yet! It is the most free entertainment, ever!

Courageous Lion - Hear Me Roar - Jus Meum Tuebor

ROTFLMFGO! Boy are you an ignorant boot licking slave!