Kimberly LaFave, et al. v. Fairfax County, Virginia, et al.

Fairfax County, Virginia, prohibits possession of firearms in its public parks, which consist of almost 24,000 acres of mostly wooded land across 420 parks. Petitioners, who have permits to carry handguns, are thereby prohibited from carrying firearms for self-defense in Fairfax County parks. The Fourth Circuit held the restriction was facially constitutional under the Second Amendment on the basis that four preschool programs operate on a tiny portion of the total parkland, making the prohibition valid at least in those few locations. In District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008), this Court held that D.C.’s handgun ban was facially invalid even though firearms could be banned in “sensitive places” like certain government buildings. This Court repeated those statements in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, 597 U.S. 1, 31 (2022), adding that sensitive places do not include “all places of public congregation that are not isolated from law enforcement,” even as it declared New York’s may-issue licensing scheme unconstitutional. The question presented is whether the Fourth Circuit properly rejected Petitioners’ challenge to Fairfax County’s ban on carrying firearms in the hundreds of public parks operated by the County because four of those parks host preschool programs.