Recent Victory for the Second Amendment

On June 23, 2022, the United States Supreme Court achieved a great victory in protection of the Second Amendment rights of American citizens. In the landmark case of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, the Court held that the state of New York’s concealed carry law was overly restrictive in light of the Second Amendment, and that the law therefore violated the Second Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment. New York’s law required gun owners to demonstrate a specific or special need to carry a concealed firearm. To analyze whether gun legislation comports with the Second Amendment, the Court looked to whether the burden imposed on gun owners is comparably justified on a modern and historical basis. For instance, the Court can uphold gun laws such as those pertaining to school zones given the precedent for forbidding firearms in school zones and other such “sensitive places.” However, New York failed to meet this burden and was unable to demonstrate that it was protecting a peculiarly “sensitive place” in society with its overbroad law. The Court reasoned that the exercise of a constitutional right does not require individuals to demonstrate some special need for exercising the constitutional right in question.

_______________________________