Virginia Switches sides on Supreme Court case of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen

With Virginia switching sides, there are now 27 states that back striking down New York’s May Issue requirements for concealed carry, and only 17 states and the District of Columbia that support keeping the “proper cause” requirement before permits are issued. A copy of Virginia’s letter to the Supreme Court is available here. A key passage of Virginia’s filing is here:

It is Virginia’s position that New York’s “proper cause” requirement unconstitutionally prevents individuals from exercising their fundamental Second Amendment right to bear arms outside the home. The Second Circuit below is just one of many courts that has been “resisting this Court’s decisions in Heller and McDonald and [is] failing to protect the Second Amendment to the same extent that they protect other constitutional rights.” Silvester v. Becerra, 138 S. Ct. 945, 950 (2018) (Thomas, J., dissenting from denial of certiorari). This Court should correct that trend. This is “not a close question”; the correct outcome “follows directly from Heller.”