WASHINGTON, June 25 (DC Times Online) — The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down Hawaii’s so-called “vampire rule,” ruling 6-3 that the state cannot require concealed-carry permit holders to get a property owner’s consent before entering certain privately owned properties 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.” He also wrote that the rule “hobble[s] what the Second Amendment protects: the right of Americans to carry arms for self-defense as they go about their daily lives.”
The court’s conservative majority sided with challengers to the Hawaii law, while three liberal justices dissented, according to reporting on the decision. The ruling nullifies the state requirement for permission before lawful gun owners with concealed-carry permits may enter covered private businesses and other public-access property.
The case adds to a long line of Supreme Court gun-rights decisions that began with District of Columbia v. Heller in 2008, when the court struck down Washington’s handgun ban and part of its storage rules. In 2010, McDonald v. City of Chicago extended that individual right against state and local governments.
In Heller, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the majority opinion for a 5-4 court, and President George W. Bush praised the ruling as confirming an individual right to keep and bear firearms.
