WASHINGTON, June 25 (DC Times Online) — The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down Hawaii’s concealed-carry “vampire rule,” ruling 6-3 that the state could not require permit holders to get a property owner’s approval before entering certain private places open to the public.
Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority in Wolford v. Lopez, saying Hawaii’s law “violates the constitutional right to keep and bear arms.” He also wrote that the rule “hobble[s] what the Second Amendment protects: the right of Americans to carry arms for self-defense as they go about their daily lives.”
The court’s three liberal justices dissented, according to reporting on the decision.
The ruling adds to a line of Supreme Court gun-rights decisions that began with District of Columbia v. Heller in 2008, when the justices struck down Washington, D.C.’s handgun ban and parts of its gun-storage rules. In 2010, the court’s McDonald v. City of Chicago decision extended the Second Amendment right to state and local governments.
