Second Amendment Update; New York’s Restrictive Permit Requirements

By Robert Phillips, Deputy District Attorney (Ret).

Second Amendment Update; New York’s Restrictive Permit Requirements.

A statute that requires a “special need” to carry a concealed pistol or revolver in public violates the Second and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

The United States Supreme Court just struck down an arguably overly restrictive New York statute that made it a crime to possess a firearm without a license outside one’s home. The new case is New York State Rifle Association, Inc., et al. v. Bruen (June. 23, 2022) __ U.S.__ [__ S.Ct. __; __ L.Ed.2nd __; 2022 U.S. LEXIS 3055].  Pursuant to New York’s statute (N. Y. Penal Law Ann. §400.00), an individual who wants to carry a firearm outside his home would have to obtain an unrestricted license to “have and carry” a concealed “pistol or revolver,” such a license being available to that person only if he or she could show that “proper cause exists” for doing so. (Italics added; Subd. (2)(f ))  An applicant was able to  satisfy the “proper cause” requirement only if he or she could “demonstrate a special need for self-protection distinguishable from that of the general community.” (Italics added)  In other words, merely wanting to carry a concealed firearm outside the home for general self-protection was not enough.  You would have to show a specific reason for needing to do so.  The federal Second Circuit of Appeal some ten years ago upheld the constitutionality of New York’s concealed weapons restrictions in © 2026 Legal Updates, LLC.
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