WASHINGTON, June 25 (DC Times Online) — The Supreme Court in Washington on Thursday struck down Hawaii’s concealed-carry property rule, ruling 6-3 that the state cannot require permit holders to get a property owner’s permission before entering some privately owned places open to the public.
Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority in Wolford v. Lopez and said Hawaii’s law “violates the constitutional right to keep and bear arms.” The court said the measure conflicts with the Second Amendment right to carry firearms for self-defense as Americans go about daily life.
Three liberal justices dissented. The ruling invalidates Hawaii’s so-called “vampire rule,” the label used for a policy that treated concealed carry on certain private property as barred unless the owner allowed it.
The decision adds to the court’s modern gun-rights precedent, including its 2008 ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller, which struck down Washington’s handgun ban.
