Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-280_ba7d.pdf
Page Number: 30

Cite as:  590 U. S. ____ (2020) 

27 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

question.  Petitioners do not claim the right to fire weapons 
in public places within the City.  Instead, they claim they
have a right to practice at ranges and competitions outside 
the City, and neither the City, the courts below, nor any of 
the many amici supporting the City have shown that mu-
nicipalities during the founding era prevented gun owners
from taking their guns outside city limits for practice. 

B 
If history is not sufficient to show that the New York City
ordinance is unconstitutional, any doubt is dispelled by the 
weakness  of  the  City’s  showing  that  its  travel  restriction
significantly promoted public safety.  Although the courts 
below  claimed  to  apply  heightened  scrutiny,  there  was 
nothing heightened about what they did. 

As noted, the City relied entirely on the declaration of In-
spector  Lunetta,  but  this  declaration  provides  little  sup-
port.  See supra, at 9–10.  Some of what Inspector Lunetta
asserted  was  simply  not  relevant  to  the  justification  for
drawing a distinction between trips to a range in the City
and trips to a range in a neighboring jurisdiction.  For ex-
ample, he stated that persons holding premises licenses “do
not always transport their firearms in a locked box carrying
ammunition  separately,  as  required  by  NYPD  rules,”  but
the issue in this case does not concern the storage of a gun 
on the way to a range.  App. 77–78.  Similarly, he declared 
that  “[p]remises  license  holders  have  not  demonstrated 
proper cause to carry a concealed firearm in public,” id., at 
78,  but  the  question  before  us  is  not  whether  petitioners 
have  the  right  to  do  what  they  could  if  they  had  carry  li-
censes. 

Other  statements  actually  undermine  the  City’s  public 
safety rationale.  Thus, the fact that prosecutors typically
do  not  bring  even  misdemeanor  charges  against  licensees
who carry a weapon in violation of the limitations of their