The United States Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal asking whether the Second Amendment guarantees a right to carry guns in public for self-defense.  As is their custom the justices gave no reasons for their decision and simply refused to hear the appeal.

The case would have required the court to address a question it left open in 2008 in District of Columbia v. Heller, which found that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep guns for self-defense in the home.  The new case, Drake v. Jerijian, No. 13-827, concerned whether and how governments may restrict Second Amendment rights outside the home.

The case involved a New Jersey law that requires people seeking licenses to carry guns in public to demonstrate a “justifiable need.” In practice, according to the law’s challengers, “few ordinary people can hope to obtain a New Jersey handgun carry permit.”