Supreme Court Will Hear Challenge to NYC Gun Regs

(CN) -  The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to hear a challenge of regulations governing how New Yorkers transport firearms from their homes in the city to shooting ranges.

With the justices exercising their traditional silence on why they took up the case, the New York City Law Department said it looks forward to arguing its case.

“The city’s rule keeps us all safer by limiting public transport of handguns through our crowded streets while also allowing license holders fair opportunity to maintain proficiency in the use of their weapons," spokesman Nick Paolucci said in a statement.

Under the city’s rules, holders of "premises" licenses in New York City are barred from taking their firearms outside their houses, except to an authorized small-arms shooting range. The restrictions also require the gun to be unloaded in a locked container with ammunition carried separately.

Three gun owners and the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association filed suit, but the Second Circuit upheld the restrictions last February.

"The city has presented evidence supporting its contention that the rule serves to protect the public safety of both license-holding and non-license-holding citizens of New York City," U.S. Circuit Judge Gerard E. Lynch wrote for a three-judge panel. 

The pro-gun group's attorney Paul Clement, a former solicitor general for the George W. Bush administration now working for the Washington-based firm Kirkland & Ellis, did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.

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