WASHINGTON _ A 2nd Amendment challenge to a New York City gun ordinance fizzled in the Supreme Court on Monday, but conservative justices looked poised to expand gun rights in future cases.
In a brief unsigned opinion, the high court said the New York case was moot because the city had repealed the ordinance that barred licensed gun owners from carrying their weapons across town or outside the city.
The decision is only the latest disappointment for 2nd Amendment advocates. For a decade, they have tried and failed to get the Supreme Court to rule squarely on whether gun owners have a constitutional right to carry a firearm with them in public.
New York, California and other liberal states restrict who can carry guns in public and under what circumstances. And the justices have repeatedly refused to strike down those laws.
But Monday's brief ruling is not the last word on the issue. The court has other appeals pending that raise 2nd Amendment challenges to state restrictions on semiautomatic weapons and on carrying guns in public.
