Today, in New York State Rifle and Pistol Asson., Inc., v. Bruen, the Supreme Court struck down New York’s regime for the issuance of gun permits.  597 U.S. ____ (2022).  Specifically, the Court held that New York’s gun licensing law, which allow individuals to acquire a permit only if he can prove “proper cause” for doing so, violates the 14th Amendment by unconstitutionally burdening the 2nd Amendment rights of New Yorkers.  

In the wake of the horrific mass shootings in Buffalo, and more recently in Uvalde, Texas, the nation and New York have been actively taking a closer look at the regulation of gun possession.  Indeed, the United States is, by many accounts, the only developed country that regularly confronts the mass shootings of its citizens and does nothing.  Here in New York, Governor Hochul recently signed into law a package of additional gun safety measures strengthening permitting requirements for semi-automatic rifles, expanding the state’s Red Flag laws, closing definitional loopholes, and taking other reasonable steps to counter the scourge of rising gun violence.  For a moment in time, it appeared that New York, at least, was fashioning a rebuttal to the meme-status Onion News headline from 8 years ago:  ‘No Way to Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.