New York tried to make gun permit applicants hand over three years of social media history as a "character and conduct" check. A federal court just permanently enjoined that provision after the state decided not to fight it.

"New York's demand that applicants surrender three years of their private social media history was a blatant invasion of privacy and a massive government overreach. Forcing the state to abandon this requirement was a victory not only for the Second Amendment, but for the First and Fourth Amendments as well."

Three amendments in one ruling is notable. The practical read: conditioning a carry permit on disclosing your private online speech hits the First, demanding account histories without a warrant hits the Fourth, and the whole thing is a back-door attack on the Second. New York apparently ran the math and decided this was a losing position — which tells you something about how thin the legal justification actually was.

Idaho's permit process is about as clean as it gets — fingerprints, background check, done. But case law built in federal courts doesn't stay in New York. If a state legislature ever floats something like "social media review for permit applicants," the door to argue against it just got heavier to open.

Has your state's permit process ever asked for anything that felt like it was fishing for reasons to deny rather than just verifying eligibility?

Read the full article in The Handbook → | By Steve Duskett