Can states regulate guns in public places? Appeals court issues a split decision

A federal appeals court has handed down a split decision on New York’s efforts to keep firearms out of public spaces.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ban on guns in parks and other publicly owned spaces — but struck down a provision that outlawed firearms on private property that’s open to the public, such as restaurants and shops.

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The decision reshapes how guns are controlled and carried in New York and could influence similar laws around the country. The debate over “sensitive places” carry bans is playing out nationally. On Wednesday, the Second Amendment Foundation and its allies petitioned the Supreme Court to review a “sensitive places” carry ban in Maryland.

Monday’s ruling contributes to the conversation around just how far state and local governments can restrict Second Amendment rights, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2022 landmark Bruen decision, which overturned a restricted concealed carry law. That opinion, issued in the wake of numerous mass shootings around the country, established a Second Amendment right to carry a gun for self-defense and created a new test for evaluating future gun laws. 

In its decision released Monday, the appeals court affirmed a lower court decision upholding the state’s right to bar guns in “sensitive places” like parks. 

But the judges ruled that while New York proved its parks should be protected, the provision applying to private property went too far.

“We conclude that the Private Property Provision, as applied to private property open to the public, is unconstitutional because the State did not carry its burden of demonstrating that the restriction falls within our Nation’s historical tradition of gun regulations,” the court said in its 68-page ruling.

Under this ruling, a restaurant owner in Manhattan could choose whether to allow or prohibit firearms on the premises. The state would have no say in the decision.

New York passed the law in 2022, after the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Bruen case.

The appeals court’s split decision reflects uncertainty over how courts will interpret Second Amendment rights in light of the Bruen decision, which requires gun regulations to be consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm restrictions. 

Other states that have passed similar laws to New York’s post-Bruen may need to revisit how they regulate firearms in privately owned spaces. 

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