The court found that the law, enacted in 1913, violated the right of individuals to “keep and bear arms” under the Second Amendment to the US Constitution.
The ruling, authored by Justice Clarence Thomas, stated that the Constitution protects “the right of an individual to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home.” “We are not aware of any other constitutional right that an individual can exercise only after demonstrating to government officials some special need,” he added.
The ruling could undermine similar restrictions in other states and jeopardize other types of state and local limits on guns across the country.
Gun rights, cherished by many Americans and established by the country’s 18th-century founders, are a contentious issue in a country with high levels of gun violence, including numerous mass shootings.
President Joe Biden, who has called gun violence a national shame, condemned the decision.
“This ruling contradicts both common sense and the Constitution and should deeply concern us all,” Biden said. “In the aftermath of the horrific attacks in Buffalo and Uvalde, as well as daily acts of gun violence that don’t make the national news, we as a society must do more – not less – to protect our fellow citizens.”
In recent years, the United States has suffered hundreds of deaths from dozens of mass shootings. In the past few weeks alone, 19 children and two teachers were killed on May 24 at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and 10 people were killed in the May 14 attack on a Buffalo, New York grocery store.
New York’s restriction is unconstitutional because it “prevents law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their right to keep and bear arms,” Thomas added.
Liberal Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in his dissent that the court had expanded gun rights without addressing the “nature or severity” of gun violence in a country where there are more guns per person than anywhere else.
“I am afraid the court’s interpretation ignores these significant dangers and leaves states without the ability to address them,” Breyer wrote.
Source: Ambito
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