Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-280_ba7d.pdf
Page Number: 9.0

6 

NEW YORK STATE RIFLE & PISTOL ASSN., INC. v. 
CITY OF NEW YORK 
ALITO, J., dissenting 

which the License Division may request additional paper-
work.  App. 100. 

It takes the License Division approximately six months 
to process applications, §5–07(a), and during this time, the
applicant cannot lawfully possess a handgun in the home, 
§5–09.  When the license issues and the applicant wishes to 
obtain it, he or she must appear in person at police head-
quarters for at least the third time.  §5–07(b).  At present,
we  are  told,  approximately  40,000  City  residents  (repre-
senting  about  1.29%  of  the  households  in  the  City)2  have 
been issued handgun licenses.

The  NYPD  may  revoke  a  premises  license  at  any  time,
§5–07(d),  including  for  such  things  as  laminating  the  li-
cense, §5–22(a)(4).  And a license expires after three years, 
so a licensee who wants to continue to possess a gun in the
home after that time must file a renewal application. §5–
28(a). 

2 

The  ordinance  that  petitioners  challenged  in  this  case 
was adopted in 2001.  Before then, the NYPD issued both 
premises licenses and so-called “target licenses,” which al-
lowed  licensees  to  transport  their  handguns  to  specified, 
preapproved ranges outside of the City.  See App. to Pet. for 
Cert. 90–92.  Target licenses were eliminated in 2001, and 
from  that  time  until  the  City’s  post-certiorari  change  of 
heart,  premises  licensees  could  practice  with  their  guns
only  if:  they  traveled  “directly  to  and  from  an  authorized 
small arms range/shooting club”; their guns were unloaded
and secured in a locked container; and any ammunition was
“carried separately.”  §5–23(a)(3) (in effect prior to July 21,
2019) (emphasis added); id., at 88.  And—what is most im-
portant for present purposes—the only “authorized” ranges 

—————— 

2 The  last  census  found  that  there  were  3,109,784  households  in  the 
City.  D. Gaquin & M. Ryan, County and City Extra: Special Decennial 
Census Edition 607 (2012).