Supreme Court takes up gun owners' challenge to 'Vampire Rules'
Source: USA Today
Jan. 17, 2026, 3:00 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON – In the 1897 Gothic horror novel by Bram Stoker, Dracula couldn’t enter a room without being invited. In a Supreme Court case the justices will hear on Jan. 20, gun rights advocates charge Hawaii and other states with creating “Vampire Rules,” laws requiring gun owners to get permission – verbally, in writing or through a posted sign − before carrying a concealed firearm onto private property that’s open to the public, such as a store.
The default presumption, they argue, should be that handguns are permitted on publicly open private property unless the owner explicitly bans them.
Their challenge – which the Trump administration took the unusual step of encouraging the Supreme Court to hear before waiting for the court to ask for the government's views − won’t require the justices to delve into 19th-century literature. But it will necessitate a review of laws from the colonial and Reconstruction eras.
That’s because the Supreme Court, in a landmark 2022 decision, said gun regulations have to be consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation to be constitutional.
Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/01/17/supreme-court-hawaii-vampire-rule-case/88199509007/
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