J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Just weeks after a gunman murdered 19 children and 2 teachers in Uvalde, Texas, the conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court has issued a ruling that will make it even more difficult for states to pass laws restricting guns.
The case, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, concerned a New York gun licensing law that required people who want to carry concealed handguns to demonstrate “proper cause.” In other words, aspiring concealed carriers had to prove that they had a special need for self-defense before they could be licensed.
During oral arguments, the court’s six conservative justices seemed eager to blow up the New York law. On Thursday, they did precisely that, ruling that it violates the Constitution by “preventing law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms in public for self-defense.”
