PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A federal judge says Rhode Island’s gun permit system, which requires residents to show “a need” to openly carry a firearm throughout the state, does not violate the Second Amendment.
In a ruling handed down Friday, U.S. District Judge William Smith granted Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha’s motion for summary judgment that dismisses a lawsuit filed by a coalition of gun owners in 2023.
The lawsuit stems from a Rhode Island law dictating how the state issues firearms permits.
According to the statute, local officials are required to issue concealed-carry permits to anyone who meets the specific criteria outlined in the statute. However, it also allows the attorney general’s office to issue open-carry permits “upon a proper showing of need.” Unlike municipalities, the attorney general is not required to issue such permits.
The plaintiffs, largely led by Michael O’Neil, a lobbyist for the Rhode Island 2nd Amendment Coalition and a firearm instructor, said in their initial complaint that the attorney general’s office denied all seven of their applications in 2021 for an “unrestricted” firearm permit, allowing both open and concealed carry. Court documents show that the attorney general’s office denied their permits because all of them had been granted “restricted” permits, which only allowed concealed carry.
Smith said in his ruling that unrestricted permits “are a privilege and there is no constitutionally protected liberty interest in obtaining one.”
The plaintiffs had hoped for a similar ruling handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022, where the justices struck down a New York state law that had restricted who could obtain a permit to carry a gun in public.
Similar to Rhode Island, New York’s law had required residents to show an actual need to carry a concealed handgun in public for self-defense.
Yet, notably, Smith said in his ruling that the high court’s 2022 ruling did not declare that the Second Amendment “requires open carry,” but even if it did, Rhode Island’s law “is within the Nation’s historical tradition of regulation.”
Frank Saccoccio, the attorney representing the gun owners, said in an email Monday that they did not believe Smith’s decision was in line with the 2022 SCOTUS decision and would be appealing.
An email seeking comment from the attorney general was sent on Monday.