Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor announced that Alaska has joined a coalition of 23 state attorneys general in an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Corlett.
The brief argues that permitting law-abiding citizens to carry firearms in self-defense outside the home respects their fundamental rights and deters violent crime, while more stringent “subjective-issue permitting,” which essentially requires a citizen to have “good cause” or some other specific reason to conceal carry, decreases public safety.
“States with these types of subjective permitting regimes infringe on citizens’ Second Amendment right to bear arms in self-defense outside the home and deprive citizens of a means to defend themselves from crime,” Taylor said in a statement.
The brief cites empirical evidence showing that concealed carry holders are less likely to commit crime, stating, “permit holders are less likely than members of the general public to commit violent crimes, and neither Washington, D.C., nor any state that has a permissive permit regime has experienced widespread trouble from those who go through the licensing process.”
The brief also argues that the original public meaning of the Second Amendment allowed citizens to bear arms for self-defense outside their homes.
Using the United States Supreme Court decision Heller v. D.C., the brief argues, “In Heller, following the text and history of the Second Amendment, this Court held that the federal constitution ‘guarantee[s] the individual right to possess and carry weapons in case of confrontation.’”
Alaska joins Missouri, Arizona, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.
