But many observers, citing justices’ line of questioning during oral arguments last year, expect the conservative majority to rule that the New York statute infringes on the right to keep and bear arms. To be sure, the court could let current law stand. Bruen, the justices are weighing whether denying an application for a concealed carry license for “self defense” - outside the home and in public - violates the Second Amendment. In the case before it now, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Heller, but the ruling was limited, protecting the right to keep a gun “in defense of hearth and home.” The Supreme Court recognized the Second Amendment as an individual right in 2008′s District of Columbia v. Or, if a person says they are applying for a license to carry because they want a gun for work - they may carry a lot of money on them and want protection, for example - the city could restrict the license to “business activities” only. In Boston, for example, city officials tell prospective applicants they could restrict a license to just hunting or recreational shooting, limiting a person to carrying the gun to and from the range. That means the application of the law can vary widely, including in the restrictions local officials can place on licenses. Massachusetts also gives chiefs wide discretion in determining whether someone is suitable to have a license to carry. Under state law, local police chiefs, who serve as the state’s licensing authority, may issue a license to carry - which allows the purchase and carrying in public of a handgun - to someone if that person shows a “good reason” to have one, including if they “fear injury to the applicant or the applicant’s property.”

In New York, state law requires people to apply for a permit to carry a concealed gun, and to show “proper cause,” or a special need to carry a gun outside their home that goes beyond a generalized social danger or fear. “But,” he said, “even a narrow decision striking down New York’s law is going to have a big impact on Massachusetts.” Jacobs and others acknowledge that it’s unclear how broadly the Supreme Court could craft such a decision, which would dictate the legislative response. In the places you go to in public, there could be people carrying firearms where there weren’t before,” said Cody Jacobs, a lecturer at the Boston University School of Law and a former staff attorney at what is now the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

“It’s a change that would have a lot of day-to-day consequences.

Unravel two license key