Supreme Court bars 'vampire rules' on gun ownership

The U.S. Supreme Court Al Drago/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Al Drago/Getty Images The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that states cannot require gun owners to get permission from property owners before bringing guns onto their land. In a 6-3 ideologically divided decision, the high court said that requiring permission in advance is an undue burden on the right to possess and carry a firearm. In most states, gun owners can bring firearms onto private property, unless the property owner tells them otherwise. But five states—Hawaii, California, Maryland, New York, and New Jersey—have passed laws that require gun owners to get permission in advance. These regulations are sometimes called " vampire laws ," so named from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Dracula, where the Count "may not enter anywhere at the first, unless there be some one of the household who bid him to come." Justice Samuel Alito , writing for a conservative supermajority, drove a stake through the laws by deciding that they "hobble[s] what the Second Amendment protects: the right of Americans to carry arms for self-defense as they go about their daily lives." This is the latest in a series of cases stemming from the court's landmark 2022 decision creating a new test to determine if a gun regulation is constitutional. In that year, the court decided that in order for a gun regulation to be valid, the government must show that there existed "relevantly similar" regulations at the time of the founding. …