The U.S. Supreme Court has turned down the appeal of a Maryland man who said the state's restrictive gun-permit law violated his constitutional right to carry a firearm in public for self defense. The Christian Science Monitor said the case, Williams v. Maryland, was being closely followed because it might have set the stage for another potential landmark Second Amendment decision by the high court.
The action does not end the possibility of a gun-rights case’s reaching the court this term. The high court is awaiting briefs in at least one other gun case, and several other Second Amendment cases are working their way to the court. In 2008, the justices ruled that Americans have a right to possess arms in the home for self defense – a ruling that prevents government from enacting overly restrictive gun-control regulations. In 2010, the court announced that Second Amendment rights apply not only in federal jurisdictions but throughout the country in state and local jurisdictions as well. the Williams case asked the court to extend its analysis one step further, clarifying whether the Second Amendment's right to “keep and bear arms” free from overly restrictive regulations applies beyond the home to carrying weapons in public for personal self defense.