By: Teresa Mull

The National Foundation for Gun Rights (NFGR) has announced it has submitted an amicus brief in what the group says is the “first major gun case the U.S. Supreme Court has taken in over a decade and deals specifically with the right to bear arms in public.”

(New York State Rifle & Pistol Association) NYSRPA v. Bruen challenges New York law that requires people who want to carry a firearm outside of their home to demonstrate “proper cause” (i.e., a special need for self-defense) for doing so.

The question to be heard by the the court is: “Whether the Second Amendment allows the government to prohibit ordinary law-abiding citizens from carrying handguns outside the home for self- defense,” and is limited to, “Where the state’s denial of petitioners’ applications for concealed carry licenses for self-defense violated the Second Amendment.”

“Our brief is designed to convince the Justices that public carry is a Constitutional RIGHT protected by the Second Amendment — and that it is time for the federal courts to respect and defend it,” NFGR wrote in a message to supporters.

The two petitioners in the case, Robert Nash and Brandon Koch, were both denied concealed carry permits, despite providing evidence of firearms training, and Nash citing robberies in his neighborhood.

NFGR joins dozens of other groups who have filed amicus briefs. What’s more, Fox News reports:

“A coalition of more than two dozen Republican state attorneys general have filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court urging justices to declare a New York state concealed carry gun law unconstitutional.

“The amicus brief from the attorneys general comes less than two weeks after Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., announced on July 7 that she had the support of 168 House Republicans in filing an amicus brief in the Supreme Court case backing the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association’s lawsuit.”

Brnovich spoke out strongly in favor of the Second Amendment, saying, “Law-abiding citizens should not require the consent of faceless bureaucrats to exercise their right to keep and bear arms. New York cannot override the Second Amendment or the law of self-preservation. I will continue to vigorously protect Americans’ right to bear arms.”

The NFGR amicus brief, which you can read in full here, concludes:

History, tradition, and text demonstrate that the right to keep and bear arms is not a second-class right limited to being exercised within the home if the arm is carried concealed. This Court’s jurisprudence treats no other enumerated right in such a manner. This Court should put to rest states’ and lower courts’ treating the right to keep and bear arms, as protected by the Second Amendment, as a second-class right.

The case is slated for the October session. Of course, GPM will follow this case and provide breaking updates as they are available.

Teresa Mull ([email protected]) is editor of Gunpowder Magazine.