BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms have been joined by four other rights groups in an amicus curiae brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in support of a challenge to New York City’s restrictive handgun law that prohibits handguns licensed in the city to be taken outside the home.
Joining SAF and CCRKBA are Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, the Independence Institute, Millennial Policy Center and Professors of Second Amendment Law. They are supporting a lawsuit filed by the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association and three private citizens against the New York City law. The case has been accepted for review by the Supreme Court.
In their brief, prepared by attorneys Joseph Greenlee with the Millennial Policy Center and David Kopel from the Independence Institute, the amici organizations contend that strict scrutiny should apply to this case, which amounts to a ban on self-defense for law-abiding citizens. They also contend that the city’s ban on most travel by citizens with their own handguns is a severe burden on the exercise of their rights.
In their brief, Kopel and Greenlee remind the high court that, despite the court’s declaration that the Second Amendment is not a second-class right “to be singled out for special—and specially unfavorable—treatment,” several lower courts “have boldly admitted dong so.” The New York case affords an opportunity to the Supreme Court to correct that.
“Our groups joined in this single amicus brief because it lays out, in a powerful and compelling way, how the Second Amendment is still being treated like an unwanted step-child by lower courts despite language in the Heller and McDonald rulings in 2008 and 2010,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “New York’s draconian gun law treats the right protected by the Second Amendment as if it were a strictly-regulated government privilege.
“We’re delighted to join these other groups in this brief to the Supreme Court,” he added. “It is the first Second Amendment case to be accepted by the high court in nearly a decade, and its significance cannot be overstated. We believe the city’s gun law is an affront to the Constitution and both the Heller and McDonald rulings.”