This case is giving the gun grabbers a serious case of heartburn, as we can see from this very long activist article from USA Today
Supreme Court may expand Second Amendment rights despite repeal of disputed gun restrictions
The Supreme Court may be on the verge of expanding gun rights for the first time in nearly a decade. What’s surprising is how it got there.
The court on Monday will hear a challenge to an obscure New York City rule that set such rigid restrictions on transporting legally owned guns that it was repealed in July.
But it turns out that wasn’t what they really wanted. Backed by the National Rifle Association and the Trump administration, the challengers to New York’s abandoned restrictions are hoping the high court refuses to declare the case moot. That would give them a chance to win the biggest Second Amendment victory since landmark rulings a decade ago affirmed the right to keep guns at home for self-defense.
Faced with a defunct ban on transporting guns outside city limits, the increasingly conservative court majority could render a decision making clear what some justices believe: that the Second Amendment extends beyond the home, and that lower courts should view state and local limits on carrying guns in public with skepticism.
I’ve mentioned this case a few times. The City Of New York restricted heavily where law abiding citizens could take their firearms, and, faced with a lawsuit, they did away with the law in an attempt to avoid the Supreme Court making a ruling, as backed by all the gun grabber groups. The Court said they would still hear it.
Enter an extreme rule such as New York City’s, which barred licensed handgun owners from taking their guns beyond its five boroughs, even to second homes or shooting ranges. Federal district and appeals courts upheld the 18-year-old rule, but it looked like a goner at the Supreme Court.
Gun control groups such as Brady, Everytown for Gun Safety and the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence feared something else: a decision that would expand public carry rights elsewhere, including in nine states that give law enforcement officials discretion to deny licenses. Those are California, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware and Hawaii.
This could very much empower the law abiding citizens who want to utilize their 2nd Amendment Right. The article is very much about “oh, those darned Conservatives on the court” and such, but, interestingly, none of these gun grabber groups or states are going after the criminals who use firearms, just the law abiding.
Buoyed by recent victories, gun control groups and their allies worry that what the justices write when deciding the New York case could influence lower courts to strike down other restrictions.
“The court doesn’t have to look like it’s making a big change,” says Adam Winkler, a UCLA School of Law professor and Second Amendment expert. “It can make a big change by setting the foundations for future cases.â€
See? It’s all about harming the law abiding.
