The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear an appeal to expand gun rights in the United States in a New York case over the right to carry a firearm in public for self-defense. The case marks the court's first foray into gun rights since Justice Amy Coney Barrett came on board in October, making a 6-3 conservative majority, per the AP. The justices said Monday they'll review a lower-court ruling that upheld New York's restrictive gun permit law. The court's action follows mass shootings in recent weeks in Indiana, Georgia, Colorado, and California. The court had turned down review of the issue in June, before Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death. New York is among eight states that limit who has the right to carry a weapon in public. The others are: California, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Rhode Island.
Paul Clement, representing challengers to New York's permit law, said the court should use the case to settle the issue once and for all. "The nation is split, with the Second Amendment alive and well in the vast middle of the nation, and those same rights disregarded near the coasts," Clement wrote on behalf of the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association and two New York residents. Calling on the court to reject the appeal, the state said its law promotes public safety and crime reduction and neither bans people from carrying guns nor allows everyone to do so. The issue of carrying a gun for self-defense has been seen for several years as the next major step for gun rights at the Supreme Court. Barrett is known to have a more expansive view of gun rights than Ginsburg. The case will likely be argued in the fall.
(More
US Supreme Court stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
