US Supreme Court to hear challenge on carrying concealed handguns

The lawsuit seeks an unfettered right to carry concealed handguns. Lower courts have already rejected its arguments.

The US Supreme Court has stepped back into the heated debate over gun rights, agreeing to hear a challenge backed by the National Rifle Association to New York state’s restrictions on people carrying concealed handguns in public in a case that could further undermine firearms control efforts nationally. The justices on Monday took up an appeal by two gun owners and the New York affiliate of the NRA, an influential gun rights group closely aligned with Republicans, of a lower court ruling throwing out their challenge to the restrictions on concealed handguns outside the home. Lower courts rejected the argument made by the plaintiffs that the restrictions violated the US Constitution’s Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. The lawsuit seeks an unfettered right to carry concealed handguns in public.