Posts Tagged new york law review

Policing vs Expanded Gun Rights

This academic paper discusses how police will have to change due to the widespread acceptance of concealed carry.

This Article examines how the rapid deregulation and rampant possession of firearms
is likely going to impact policing, and the constitutional law that governs it. For the
longest time, lawful gun carry, concealed or open, was exceedingly rare. For a police
officer to see a gun was both to see danger, and a crime in progress. This link among
guns, danger, and unlawful possession has shaped much of the law of policing. But
now, this understanding of the world is in its last stages of unraveling.


In nearly all states, guns are no longer unlawful to own and carry by default. In many,
they are barely regulated. Recent Supreme Court Second Amendment decisions like
New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen serve only to hasten where
state laws already were headed. For police, however, the harm guns can do exists
irrespective of what the law has to say about the legality of carrying them. As a result,
the nation’s gun laws are on a collision course with the practice and law of policing.
This Article explores how the constitutional law governing policing is changing and
will change in the face of gun legalization.

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