On June 23, America's Supreme Court overturned historic gun control legislation in a 6-3 decision that states, as the New York Times said, "a broad right to arm themselves in public."
The specific legislature that the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) toppled was a New York law limiting gun owners from carrying firearms outside of their homes — publicly or not — and sets precedent for other states to rewrite their own open carry laws or even do away with them entirely.
As an American, this is frustrating, to say the least.
Anyways, SCOTUS' ruling comes the same day that a new bill enforcing tighter gun regulation was passed by the Senate, likely to be passed by the House in due time.
It feels like a pat on the back and a slap in the face.
In a statement justifying the decision, Justice Clarence Thomas — whose wife is reportedly an ardent conservative activist with conspiratorial leanings — claimed that the American Bill of Rights' Second Amendment protected "an individual’s right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home," thus demonstrating that a piece of paper written several hundred years ago inexplicably still sets the tone for American law.
"The Supreme Court today has invented a supposed right to carry, virtually anywhere, loaded guns – to potentially shoot and kill other people," said Jonathan Lowy, chief counsel for gun control organization Brady. "As dangerous as the decision is, its legal reasoning is worse; the Court relies on alternative history, disregarding historical facts that are inconvenient for its policy agenda, and basically erases half of the Second Amendment’s text, and its purpose to protect well-regulated militia."
Gun lobbyists and manufacturers were, unsurprisingly, thrilled with SCOTUS' decision — they know they're going to sell more weapons. Share prices for Smith & Wesson have soared over 17%.
“Absolutely shocking. We’re already dealing with a major gun violence crisis,” a visibly angered New York Governor Kathy Hochul said of the news.
Hochul also pointed to recent shootings at a school in Texas and a supermarket in New York. “We don’t need to add more fuel to this fire.”
The point is, with gun violence already on the rise in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, there's no reason to get more guns on the street.
The "Good Guy With a Gun" myth has been shown to be demonstrably false time and time again.
More guns does not equal less crime, studies show.
So, with no real-world justification to overturn precedence — some law scholars are pointing out the shaky legal justification for SCOTUS' decision — we're left without rationale. Just more guns.
And, if these seem like left-field points to make on a website that primarily covers fashion, sneakers, and culture, consider that the people who write those articles are human beings with thoughts on current events outside the scope of the day-to-day news. Sometimes, something weighs on us enough to be worth bringing up for greater consideration and it just so happens that SCOTUS has been behind both recent disturbances.
