US Supreme Court declines NY case against gun control

The US Supreme Court yesterday declined to consider whether the Second Amendment protected the right of US citizens to carry a gun outside the home.

The refusal leaves intact the New York state's requirement that people wishing to carry a handgun in public show a special need for protection.

With their refusal to be drawn into the fractious nationwide debate over firearms, the justices today allowed a federal appeals court decision that held the century-old New York law didn't infringe the Constitution's Second Amendment to stand.

Making no comment, the court turned down an appeal by five New York residents and a gun-rights group.

New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman observed that the state's law was ''similar to the types of longstanding laws that courts have repeatedly upheld.''

Schneiderman said in a statement, the high court rebuff was '' a victory for families across New York who are rightly concerned about the scourge of gun violence that all too often plagues our communities.''

In 1981, residents of only three states Maine, Washington and Vermont could carry firearms in public without giving reason. Today residents of 40 staes are allowed to carry guns in public.

Federal appeals courts stand divided over the  remaining laws restricting public possession.

Striking down an Illinois law that barred most people from carrying a loaded weapon in public, a different court held it violated the Constitution's Second Amendment.

In the New York case, the office of the state attorney general had argued in its brief to the  Supreme Court to let the lower-court decision stand. It said the state had a "compelling interest in public safety and crime prevention" that made gun regulation necessary.

Gun rights avocates cited that there was no restriction placed on the freedom of speech, worship - or even abortion - and argued in their brief that as a result of the New York law, their right to bear arms, were rendered ''illusory.''

Commentators say, despite refusing to consider the New York case, the Supreme Court would have to take a position on the fractious issue soon, given that lower federal courts had issued split decisions on state laws designed to curb the prevalence of handguns on the streets.

According to Adam Winkler, a law professor at UCLA and author of Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America, it was only a matter of time before the court decided whether people had a right to carry guns in public.

He added this was the biggest unanswered question about the Second Amendment.

(Also see: Obama seeks to bypass legislative branch to implement gun control)