In a 6-3 ruling, the US Supreme Court holds that the Second and Fourteenth Amendments safeguard Americans’ right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home.
From Reuters, US Supreme Court expands gun rights, strikes down New York law
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday declared for the first time that the U.S. Constitution protects an individual’s right to carry a handgun in public for self-defense, handing a landmark victory to gun rights advocates in a nation deeply divided over how to address firearms violence.
The 6-3 ruling, with the court’s conservative justices in the majority and liberal justices in dissent, struck down New York state’s limits on carrying concealed handguns outside the home. The court found that the law, enacted in 1913, violated a person’s right to “keep and bear arms” under the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment.
The ruling, authored by Justice Clarence Thomas, declared that the Constitution protects “an individual’s right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home.”
Democrat New York Governor Kathy Hochul, in an act of typically statist hysteria, that it is “absolutely shocking” that the court would take away states’ “right to reasonable restrictions”. The statement shows an astonishing lack of understanding of Constitutional concepts. Only individuals are acknowledged to have rights in the Constitution whereas states have powers.
Meanwhile President Biden claims the ruling “contradicts both common sense and the Constitution”.
Lower Valley Assembly 