The U.S. Supreme Court turned away on Monday a challenge to New York firearms restrictions adopted shortly after the justices in 2022 struck down the Democratic state’s previous limits on carrying concealed handguns in a landmark ruling that expanded gun rights.
The justices declined to hear an appeal by six New York residents who either have or are seeking a concealed-carry license of a lower court’s decision that let the state enforce certain licensing requirements and restrictions in locations deemed “sensitive.”
The dispute centered on New York’s Concealed Carry Improvement Act, a Democratic-backed measure adopted after the court’s 2022 ruling that declared for the first time that the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms protects an individual’s right to carry a handgun in public for self-defense.
That ruling also announced a stringent test that required gun laws to be “consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation” to comply with the Second Amendment. It was one of three key rulings by the Supreme Court since 2008 that have broadened gun rights in a nation deeply divided over how to address firearms violence including frequent mass shootings. The United States has the world’s highest gun ownership rate.