Supreme Court grants cert in potentially big Second Amendment case out of New York City

In this post from over the weekend, I commented again on the Second Amendment's second-class status as evidenced by how its protections are general understood and applied in lower courts.  In that post, I might also have noted how long it has been since the Supreme Court has even taken up Second Amendment issues given that District of Columbia v. Heller was decided a way back in 2008 and McDonald v. Chicago was back in 2010. But, via this order list today, the Supreme Court has now given itself another opportunity to develop Second Amendment jurisprudence through a grant of certiorari in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. City of New York, New York. Here is how the cert petition sets up the Question Presented in this case:

New York City prohibits its residents from possessing a handgun without a license, and the only license the City makes available to most residents allows its holder to possess her handgun only in her home or en route to one of seven shooting ranges within the city.  The City thus bans its residents from transporting a handgun to any place outside city limits—even if the handgun is unloaded and locked in a container separate from its ammunition, and even if the owner seeks to transport it only to a second home for the core constitutionally protected purpose of self-defense, or to a more convenient out-of-city shooting range to hone its safe and effective use.

The City asserts that its transport ban promotes public safety by limiting the presence of handguns on city streets.  But the City put forth no empirical evidence that transporting an unloaded handgun, locked in a container separate from its ammunition, poses a meaningful risk to public safety.  Moreover, even if there were such a risk, the City’s restriction poses greater safety risks by encouraging residents who are leaving town to leave their handguns behind in vacant homes, and it serves only to increase the frequency of handgun transport within city limits by forcing many residents to use an in-city range rather than more convenient ranges elsewhere.

The question presented is:

Whether the City’s ban on transporting a licensed, locked, and unloaded handgun to a home or shooting range outside city limits is consistent with the Second Amendment, the Commerce Clause, and the constitutional right to travel.

Though debates over gun rights on not always germane to sentencing issues, the various ways gun possession and gun use are approached in constitutional law can have many echo effects on criminal justice systems and case processing. So, though not as big a case for sentencing fans as a few others this Term, New York State Rifle Pistol Association is still one I will be watching closely.