Supreme Court shows little appetite for expanding gun rights in arguments over repealed New York regulation

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court seemed unlikely to deliver a major win for gun-rights activists during arguments on Monday in the first significant Second Amendment case the justices have heard in nearly a decade.

The case was challenging a New York City gun regulation that barred the transport of handguns outside of the city, even to a second home or firing range. After the court agreed to hear the case, though, the city did away with the regulation and the state passed a law that prevented the city from reviving it.

While court conservatives including Justices Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito seemed eager to use the case to address the reach of the Second Amendment, it appeared likely after an hour of arguments that Chief Justice John Roberts would side with the court’s liberals to dismiss the matter altogether as moot in light of the repeal of the regulation.

The dispute had one of the highest profiles of the court’s term. The court has not addressed gun legislation since deciding two landmark cases in 2008 and 2010, which held that the Second Amendment protected the individual right to keep guns for the purpose of self-defense in the home.