WASHINGTON, June 25 (DC Times Online) — The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down Hawaii’s law requiring concealed-carry permit holders to get a property owner’s consent before entering certain privately owned places open to the public, handing gun rights supporters a major win in Wolford v. Lopez.
The court ruled 6-3 that the Hawaii restriction conflicts with the Second Amendment. Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority that the law “violates the constitutional right to keep and bear arms.”
The decision invalidates what critics called Hawaii’s “vampire rule,” a measure that presumed guns were barred from covered private property unless owners gave explicit permission or posted signs allowing them.
The ruling adds to a line of Supreme Court decisions that have expanded individual gun rights in recent years. In 2008, the court in District of Columbia v. Heller struck down Washington, D.C.’s handgun ban, and in 2010 the court in McDonald v. City of Chicago applied the Second Amendment right to state and local governments.
