New York state’s requirement that gun owners prove they have a special need for protection in order to obtain a concealed weapons permit does not violate the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, says a federal appeals court ruling reported by the Christian Science Monitor. The three-judge panel unanimously upheld a law requiring applicants to prove they’d received a personal threat or had some other special need for protection before they would be granted a permit to carry a concealed firearm in public.

An appeal to the Supreme Court is expected. A group of gun owners backed by a major gun rights group challenged the permit requirement. They contended that as law-abiding citizens they should be able to carry concealed weapons without having to prove they had “proper cause” to do so. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that the Supreme Court’s decisions established a fundamental right to possess firearms in the home but that right did not entitle law-abiding citizens to carry concealed weapons in public places. "New York City suffers from an epidemic of gun violence and criminal misuse which is why we have some of the strictest laws in the nation," said Richard Aborn of the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City.