The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will take up an appeal to a New York gun rights case seeking to expand the right to carry weapons in public, the first major gun rights case the Court will hear since seizing a 6-3 majority, the Associated Press reports.
Gun rights advocates appealed a lower-court ruling that upheld New York State’s restrictions on getting a carry permit in the states. Seven other states–California, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island–have similar restrictions.
Traditionally, the courts have upheld state and local restrictions on carrying guns. “Our review of more than 700 years of English and American legal history reveals a strong theme: government has the power to regulate arms in the public square,” conservative judge Jay Bybee wrote in a 7-4 decision for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The late Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia wrote in Heller that restrictions are Constitutional.
Gun-carry advocates, however, feel that states have no ability to limit the right to carry a weapon and they’re calling on the Supreme Court to decide the issue once and for all.
“Thus, 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,” attorney Paul Clement wrote on behalf of the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association and two New York residents.