Could Supreme Court’s First Major Gun Case In Nearly A Decade Be Dismissed As Moot?
Although the case is being closely watched, much of the arguments focus on whether the court should even decide the merits of the legal challenge because New York City eliminated the limits that are central to the case.
Reuters:
U.S. Supreme Court Justices Debate Whether To Dismiss Major Gun Case
The U.S. Supreme Court's consideration of a major gun rights case could end in a misfire, with the justices on Monday debating whether to dismiss a challenge backed by the powerful National Rifle Association to a New York City handgun ordinance. The justices heard arguments in the first major gun dispute to come before them since 2010, with gun control advocates fearful that the court, with its 5-4 conservative majority, could issue a ruling further expanding firearms rights nationwide. (Chung and Hurley, 12/2)
NPR:
All For Naught? Supreme Court Indicates Gun Case May Be Moot
The problem for those gun owners was that New York state and New York City abandoned the challenged law this year after the Supreme Court said it would review it. "New York City and New York state actually gave them everything that they had asked for before this argument," said New York City corporation counsel James Johnson after the argument. "That was made very plain in this argument today." (Totenberg, 12/2)
Vox:
Supreme Court Guns: Big Victory For 2nd Amendment Activists Is Unlikely
Almost immediately after the Supreme Court announced last January that it would hear the case — the first major Second Amendment case to reach the Court since Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation gave the Court a solid conservative majority — New York officials tried to make it go away. New York City changed its rules to allow people with premises licenses to do exactly what these plaintiffs wanted to do, and New York State passed its own law preventing the city from ever restoring the old legal regime. (Millhiser, 12/2)
In other gun violence news —
Colorado Sun:
These Employees Survived The Planned Parenthood Shooting. They Say The Organization Could Have Done More To Help Them.
Cristina Jiminez, assistant manager of the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, felt the “warm whisper” of a bullet passing by her head as she hid on the floor of a bathroom during a gunman’s five-hour rampage in 2015. ... Three people died, including University of Colorado Colorado Springs police Officer Garrett Swasey, and nine others were wounded during an attack on the clinic on Nov. 27, 2015. It was one of the longest active shooter events in recent U.S. history; attacks of this type typically last less than 10 minutes. While [four former employees] have the shared experience of making it through that harrowing day, they also all feel Planned Parenthood could have done more to help them through the aftermath of the shooting. (Paul, 12/2)
The New York Times:
Student With Gun Is Shot By Officer In Wisconsin High School, Police Say
An officer at a high school in Waukesha, Wis., shot and injured a student who had a gun and pointed it at law enforcement authorities as they were trying to convince him to hand it over, officials said on Monday. The episode unfolded at Waukesha South High School at about 10:17 a.m., after a student informed the authorities that another student had a handgun, the chief of the Waukesha Police Department, Russell Jack, said. (Hauser, 12/2)
