The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a New York gun permit law that effectively will allow more people to legally carry guns on the streets of the country's largest cities, including the five boroughs of New York City and other major metros.
People have to apply for state licenses to carry a gun in New York and there's additional scrutiny for carrying guns outside the home. Under the law in place since 1913, a person applying for a license to carry a concealed handgun in public has to show "proper cause," or a specific need, to carry the weapon. The justices disagreed.
The 6-3 decision handed down by the court's conservative majority found that requiring people to show a particular need to legally carry a gun in public violated Americans' Second Amendment right to "keep and bear arms."
Thursday's ruling marked the Supreme Court's first major gun control decision in more than a decade. About a quarter of the entire U.S. population lives in states that are expected to be affected by it. So what changes going forward? It'll Be Easier to Carry Guns in Big U.S. Cities
In most of the country, gun owners have little difficulty legally carrying their weapons in public. But that had been harder to do in New York and the handful of states with similar laws. Los Angeles and Boston are among the other major U.S. cities that have been bracing for anticipated increases in gun violence-related crime due to the ruling.
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