The Supreme Court Rules That New York's Concealed Carry Handgun Law Violates Second Amendment

U.S, Supreme Court

Supreme Court strikes down New York concealed gun law in 6-3 decision

By Tim Balk

New York Daily News

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Jun 23, 2022 at 10:38 am

The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that New York’s century-old concealed carry handgun law violated the Second Amendment, a finding long feared by local officials who viewed the law as a linchpin in efforts to curb the proliferation of pistols on New York City streets.

The 6 to 3 decision, which is the court’s most significant gun-rights ruling in more than a decade, voided the state’s Sullivan Act, a regulation that limited concealed carry handgun licenses to New Yorkers with specific defense needs.

The court’s conservative majority was widely expected to gut the gun law after hinting at their opposition during oral arguments in the fall. But the decision in the case, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, still landed a blow to New York Democrats and promised swift political outcry from Brooklyn to Buffalo and beyond.

Mayor Adams said repeatedly in recent weeks the looming Supreme Court decision was keeping him up at night.

“Can you imagine being on the 4 train with someone having a 9-millimeter, exposed?” the mayor said at a news conference earlier this month. “This is not the Wild Wild West.”

Gov. Hochul has said she would consider calling lawmakers back to the state capitol if the court invalidated the gun regulation. “We will have to figure it out,” she told reporters last month. “I’ll do whatever I have to do to protect the people of this state.”

But lawmakers will now be operating under judicial edicts from Washington that have significantly expanded constitutional gun rights in the 21st century. In 2008, the Supreme Court held in a landmark decision that Americans have a personal right to possess guns that is baked into the Second Amendment.

That 5-to-4 ruling, in District of Columbia v. Heller, struck down a strict gun-control law in Washington that outlawed possession of handguns at home. The New York ruling went further, extending firearm protections in the public realm.


Two upstate New Yorkers, Robert Nash and Brandon Koch, had challenged the state’s law after unsuccessfully attempting to acquire unrestricted handgun carry licenses, saying their constitutional right to bear arms had been abridged.

The Supreme Court agreed.

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