The U.S. Supreme Court today rejected a Hawaii man’s request to drop criminal charges for carrying a gun while hiking, as the justices declined to review a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court today. high court of the liberal-leaning state which denounced an expansion of the right to firearms by the highest judicial body in the country. body.

The man, Christopher Wilson, had appealed the Hawaii Supreme Court’s decision to reinstate the charges against him after he was accused in 2017 of violating state laws prohibiting people from carrying weapons firearms and ammunition outside their home without a permit. The U.S. Supreme Court’s action left this judicial decision in place.

Wilson argued that the charges against him after his arrest for carrying a .22 caliber handgun on private property in the West Maui mountains violated his rights under the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution , which protects the right to keep and bear arms. Wilson also argued that his actions were not illegal under the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2022 ruling in a case called New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, which first recognized a person’s right to carry a handgun in public for themselves. -defense. The United States Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority.

The Hawaii Supreme Court’s decision criticized the U.S. Supreme Court’s expansion of rights under the Second Amendment and particularly the reasoning in the Bruen decision. The Hawaii court wrote that while the United States Supreme Court has held in major decisions since 2008 that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to keep and bear arms, including in public, it does not t is not the case with the nearly identical provision in the state constitution.

The state court wrote that Hawaii’s constitution supports a “collective and militia” view of gun rights and that, in its view, “there is no state constitutional right to carry a firearm in public.

The U.S. Supreme Court, the Hawaii court wrote, “distorts and cherry-picks historical evidence” and “dismisses historical facts that do not add up” to support its emphasis on an individual right. The state court’s ruling alluded to the Bruen ruling, which ordered lower courts to strike down gun restrictions if they are not “consistent with this country’s historic tradition of gun regulation.” “.

The Hawaii court called this a “fuzzy” test, based on a “liberty-reducing” method of interpretation that wrongly relies on past centuries to control modern life.

“Traveling back in time to 1791 or 1868 to understand how a state regulates deadly weapons – consistent with the Constitution’s democratic design – is a dangerous way to examine the federal Constitution. The Constitution is not a ‘suicide pact,’” the state court wrote.

Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, author of the Bruen decision, wrote in a statement today that while he agreed with the decision to reject Wilson’s appeal on procedural grounds, the Supreme Court of Hawaii “disregarded the Second Amendment.” His statement was joined by fellow conservative Justice Samuel Alito.

Police arrested Wilson after he and some companions were hiking on private property near Maalaea, Hawaii, to view the moon and native plants.

Among the charges against him, prosecutors said Wilson violated laws that prohibit carrying firearms and ammunition outside the home without a permit. Wilson argued that the charges violated his rights to keep and bear arms under the federal and state constitutions. A trial judge agreed, dismissing those charges. But the Hawaii Supreme Court overturned that decision in its February ruling.

Wilson’s call has received support from a petition and is supported by several conservative and gun rights groups.