Cracks widen on gun laws as US suffers
The US Supreme Court ruling this week, making it easier for New Yorkers to carry concealed weapons, shows how politically fractured the United States is.
The highest court in the land struck down a 100-year-old New York law that required those who want to own a gun and get a licence to prove they have “proper cause” to carry a concealed firearm and that they are in “a special or unique” danger.
The Supreme Court, comprised of six conservative and three liberal justices, unsurprisingly fell on the side of the US Constitution’s Second Amendment literal wording, stating: “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
While the judicial branch of the Government was striking down this law, the legislative branch was busy trying to advance a bipartisan set of gun restrictions in response to a series of mass shootings, the New York Times reported yesterday.
If this bill makes it into law, in my view, there is now a damning precedent for it to be challenged in the Supreme Court, perhaps making it short-lived.
President Joe Biden has expressed his disappointment, as have many anti-violence community groups, with some saying it will make their work more difficult.
Vanessa Johnson, a peer violence educator with the city’s Crisis Management System, told the New York Times: “I understand people talking about wanting to feel safe, but you also have people who don’t know how to utilise weapons for protection.
“It’s different when you have a firearm to protect yourself and your family, and then people using it senselessly.”
Biden says the ruling “contradicts both common sense and the Constitution and should deeply trouble us all”.
Biden’s not wrong. We should be troubled — here’s why.
The ruling could put pressure on other states that have similar restrictions on carrying weapons, such as California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts and New Jersey, home to a quarter of all Americans — to rewrite their laws, according to the New York Times.
In my view the decision is devastating. It flies in the face of the mass-shooting tragedies the country is in the midst of. There have been more than 277 mass shootings so far this year. This number is unthinkable.
The worst was the horrific, senseless killing of 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman entered Robb Elementary School last month.
No doubt there are other forces at play here, not the least being gun lobby the National Rifle Association which has powerful political influence, especially on the right wing, and its interpretation of the Second Amendment, which has been debated for decades.
The most fundamental contradiction is whether it means an individual’s right to bear arms or that of a military organisation such as the National Guard.
According to a report published by Statista Research Department in December, the share of American households owning at least one firearm has remained relatively steady since 1972, hovering between 37 per cent and 47 per cent. In 2021, about 42 per cent of US households had at least one gun in their possession.
It’s clear that despite the courts’ interpretations of the Second Amendment, gun ownership in the US is deeply ingrained in its culture and even repealing the amendment would not be not an easy solution.
So while the debate rages, gun deaths continue to happen.
The cracks in this particular political landscape are deepening and it’s the innocent victims of gun violence who are falling through them.