New York City Is Still Running from Supreme Court Review of Gun Laws

Cody J. Wisniewski

This past January, the Court granted review in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. City of New York, the Supreme Court’s first Second Amendment case in nearly ten years. The case addresses NYC’s statute prohibiting the transportation of handguns outside of city limits. After review was granted, and in an apparent attempt to render the lawsuit moot and escape Supreme Court review, NYC decided to run instead of fight. On July 3, 2019, NYC tried to file a letter with the Supreme Court informing the Court that NYC officials were in the process of changing the underlying transportation regulations. The change would allow license holders to transport their handguns outside of city limits to other homes or nearby shooting ranges — exactly the relief requested by Petitioners in the underlying case. The letter specified that NYC was moving forward with the amendments and that there was also going to be a change at the state level. In a particularly brazen move, completely ignoring the questions presented to be answered by the Supreme Court, NYC told the Supreme Court that should the Court require the city to file a brief by its current deadline, the city would refuse to actually address those questions and would only discuss why the city believes the case is moot. On July 8, 2019, the Supreme Court did not accept the letter for filing either because the city failed to follow the appropriate procedure or because of Petitioners’ objection. NYC hasn’t stopped running though. Now they are trying a new tactic. Attempting to address the rejected letter, on Monday NYC filed a Suggestion of Mootness with the Court. NYC claims that because the transportation prohibition statute has been amended, the case before the Court is moot and the Court should not address the merits of the Second Amendment challenge...MORE