The U.S. Supreme Court this week left intact New York’s requirement that anyone wishing to carry a gun in public demonstrate a special need for self-protection. Five residents of New York’s Westchester County and the gun-rights group Second Amendment Foundation had appealed the state law with the backing of the National Rifle Association, which attacked it as “a de facto ban on carrying a handgun outside the home.” But the court declined to hear the case, effectively ruling that the century-old law did not infringe the Second Amendment. The court has ruled that a total ban on handgun ownership is unconstitutional, but has given states great leeway to make gun laws.
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