Supreme Court strikes down Hawaii ban on guns on private property

The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down a Hawaii law that banned guns on private property open to the public, ruling that the arrangement is not consistent with the Second Amendment. According to the coverage of the decision, a number of states, with Hawaii among them, had passed laws making it a crime by default to carry a weapon onto private places such as shopping malls, movie theaters, beaches and restaurants unless the person had the express permission of the owner. The court ruled 6-3, divided along ideological lines, and held that it is up to the owners of such property to say that guns are not wanted there, rather than for the state to make that the default rule. The decision was described as a setback for states including Hawaii, California, Maryland, New York and New Jersey, which had sought to restrict the carrying of weapons in places frequented by the public. It was one of four opinions the justices handed down on the same day.

The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down a Hawaii law that banned guns on private property open to the public, ruling that the arrangement is not consistent with the Second Amendment. According to the coverage of the decision, it was one of several rulings the justices delivered on the same opinion day, and it touched directly on how far states can go in regulating where firearms may be carried.

The case concerned a particular way that some states had chosen to regulate firearms. According to the report, a number of states, with Hawaii among them, had passed laws that made it a crime by default to carry a weapon onto private places open to the public, such as shopping malls, movie theaters, beaches and restaurants, unless the person carrying had the express permission of the property owner.

At the center of the dispute was the question of who sets the default rule. According to the coverage, the court concluded that this arrangement was not consistent with the Second Amendment, and that it should be up to the owners of such property to decide and to say that guns are not wanted there, rather than for the state to impose that restriction as the starting point.

The outcome reflected the now familiar divisions on the court. According to the report, the justices ruled 6-3, dividing along ideological lines, in a decision that limited the ability of states to make it the default that weapons cannot be brought onto private property that the public regularly visits, shifting that choice to the owners themselves.

The ruling carries consequences well beyond Hawaii. According to the coverage, it was described as a setback for a group of states, including Hawaii, California, Maryland, New York and New Jersey, which had sought to take this step to restrict the carrying of weapons in places that are frequented by members of the public.

The decision arrived as part of a busy day at the court. According to the report, it was one of four opinions the justices handed down on the same day, several of them decided by the same 6-3 margin, as the court worked through a crowded docket of major cases late in its term with more rulings still expected in the days ahead.

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