US court rules hidden guns are fine for all
The US Supreme Court has ruled Americans have a fundamental right to carry a handgun in public, a landmark decision with farreaching implications for states and cities across the country confronting a surge in gun violence.
The 6-3 decision strikes down a more than century-old New York law that required a person to prove they had a legitimate self-defence need to receive a permit to carry a concealed handgun outside the home. Five other states and the capital have similar laws and the ruling will curb their ability to restrict people from carrying guns in public.
President Joe Biden denounced the decision, saying it “contradicts both common sense and the Constitution, and should deeply trouble us all”. “We must do more as a society – not less – to protect our fellow Americans,” Mr Biden said. “I call on Americans … to make their voices heard on gun safety.”
Despite growing calls for limits on firearms after two horrific mass shootings in May, the court sided with plaintiffs who said the US Constitution guarantees the right to own and carry guns.
The ruling is the first by the court in a major Second Amendment case since 2008, when it ruled that Americans have a right to keep a gun at home for self-defence.
It was a stunning victory for the National Rifle Association, which brought the case along with two New York men who had been denied permits.
“Today’s ruling is a watershed win for good men and women all across America and is the result of a decades-long fight the NRA has led,” NRA executive vice-president Wayne Lapierre.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul called it a “dark day”, and vowed to enact guncontrol legislation.
“It is outrageous that at a moment of national reckoning on gun violence, the Supreme Court has recklessly struck down a New York law that limits those who can carry concealed weapons,” she said.
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the majority opinion and was joined by the other five conservatives on the court. He said the New York law prevented “law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defence needs from exercising their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms in public for self-defence.”
Over the past two decades more than 200 million guns have hit the US market, feeding a surge in mass murders.