Defending New Jersey’s licensing, private-property, and sensitive places regulations.
Court: Third Circuit
Issue at Stake: Sensitive places
Summary: Koons v. Platkin (consolidated with Siegel v. Platkin) is a Second Amendment challenge to New Jersey Public Law 2022, Chapter 131. The statute (1) restricts carrying firearms at designated sensitive places, such as courthouses, polling places, schools, playgrounds, public libraries, and public parks; (2) prohibits carrying firearms on others’ private property without permission; and (3) requires individuals to obtain liability insurance before carrying firearms in public.
Everytown for Gun Safety submitted an amicus brief in the Third Circuit in defense of New Jersey’s statute. The brief argues that the statute’s provisions are constitutional under the approach to Second Amendment cases set out in New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen. First, it explains that the court should center its historical analysis on 1868 as opposed to 1791, and should also consider earlier and later laws. Second, it urges the court against dismissing the state’s historical analogues as insufficiently “representative,” because even a small number of laws can be sufficient to establish a tradition of firearm regulation under Bruen. Finally, it argues that the court should consider the historical context within which states and localities chose to legislate (or not to legislate) when evaluating the historical record.
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