New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen

New York required people seeking a license to carry a handgun in public to show proper cause, a special need for self-defense. On June 23, 2022, the Supreme Court struck down the rule 6 to 3, in an opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas, holding that the Second Amendment protects carrying a handgun in public for self-defense. About a half dozen states with similar discretionary rules had to change their laws.

More importantly, Bruen replaced the balancing test lower courts had used. A gun law is now constitutional only if the government shows it is consistent with the nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation, usually by pointing to similar laws from around the founding or the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment. Lower courts split on how to apply the test, and in United States v. Rahimi in 2024 the Court, 8 to 1, upheld the federal ban on guns for people under domestic violence restraining orders, saying modern laws need only be relevantly similar to historical ones, not identical.

In June 2026 the Court applied Bruen in two more cases. In United States v. Hemani it unanimously held that the government could not bar a person who used marijuana every other day from having a gun, and in Wolford v. Lopez it struck down, 6 to 3, a Hawaii law barring guns on private property open to the public without the owner's consent. It also agreed to decide whether bans on semiautomatic rifles such as the AR-15 are constitutional. Supporters say Bruen properly treats the right like other rights, while critics say the history test is unworkable and leaves states unable to address modern gun violence.