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'OUTRAGEOUS, REPREHENSIBLE': SCOTUS slammed for overturning 109-year-old NY law banning concealed guns

The ruling could also affect other states with similar permitting regimes, like California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island

In a move that could lead to more guns on the streets, the Supreme Court on Thursday, June 23, struck down New York’s 109-old law restricting the carrying of concealed firearms. This became its first major Second Amendment decision in over a decade. Justice Clarence Thomas said, while writing for the 6-3 majority on Thursday that law’s requirement of New Yorkers who want a permit to carry a handgun in public to show “proper cause” that the weapon is ​specifically needed for self-defense “violates the Fourteenth Amendment by preventing law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their right to keep and bear arms in public.”

The decision concerns New York law, but it could affect other states with similar permitting regimes, such as California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island. In a separate opinion that concurred with Thomas, Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts said that the ruling does not preclude state and local restrictions on felons and the mentally ill owning guns, or laws that ban firearms being carried in “sensitive locations” like schools and government buildings.

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“Properly interpreted, the Second Amendment allows a ‘variety’ of gun regulations,” wrote Roberts and Kavanaugh said. They noted that states can still make applicants for a firearm license “undergo fingerprinting, a background check, a mental health records check, and training in firearms handling and in laws regarding the use of force, among other possible requirements.” At a news conference with NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell, Mayor Eric Adams claimed that “nothing changes today” due to the ruling. The decision, he said, was remanded to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider its earlier decision upholding the state law. 

Challenging the Sullivan Act, The New York State Rifle and Pistol Association and two upstate men claimed it violated their Second Amendment rights. The law, that took effect in 1911, required  licenses for New Yorkers to possess firearms that are small enough to be concealed. Paul Clement, the lawyer representing the association, earlier said that his clients were seeking “nothing more than their fellow citizens in 43 other states already enjoy.” “Carrying a firearm outside the home is a fundamental constitutional right. It is not some extraordinary action that requires an extraordinary demonstration of need,” Clement had said. Agreeing, Thomas said, "“Nothing in the Second Amendment’s text draws a home/public distinction with respect to the right to keep and bear arms.”

Gov. Kathy Hochul described the court’s decision as “not just reckless,” but “reprehensible” and “frightful in its scope.” “The Supreme Court is setting us backwards in dealing with gun violence,” said at a Manhattan news conference. In a tweet, she wrote, "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."

Mayor Eric Adams said in a separate statement that  the ruling “will put New Yorkers at further risk of gun violence.” “We have been preparing for this decision and will continue to do everything possible to work with our federal, state, and local partners to protect our city,” Adams stated. “Those efforts will include a comprehensive review of our approach to defining ‘sensitive locations’ where carrying a gun is banned, and reviewing our application process to ensure that only those who are fully qualified can obtain a carry license … we cannot allow New York to become the Wild West.”

In a statement, President Joe Biden said that he was “deeply disappointed” in the ruling, saying it “contradicts both common sense and the Constitution, and should deeply trouble us all.” He wrote in a tweet, "I'm deeply disappointed by the Supreme Court’s ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. This ruling contradicts common sense and the Constitution, and should deeply trouble us all. I remain committed to doing everything in my power to reduce gun violence."

Vice President Kamala Harris also stated against the ruling, "Today's Supreme Court ruling on guns is deeply troubling as it defies commonsense and the Constitution. Lives are at stake. Congress should pass the bipartisan gun safety proposal immediately and continue to do more to protect our communities." "US senator Elizabeth Warren wrote, "In the wake of horrific gun violence in Buffalo & Uvalde, the Supreme Court’s radical conservative majority has taken us further back, unilaterally weakening gun safety laws across the nation. Countless American lives are endangered by this decision, including in Massachusetts."

Social media condemned the ruling, with one user writing, "What the hell is wrong with the Supreme Court? Anyone can carry a gun yet they want protection? Wtf". Another user said, "Ladies and gentlemen, we have a Supreme Court that decided New Yorkers need more freedom to use their guns. Another sad day in America." "How disgusting is it when New York makes safe smart gun laws and the supreme court attacks that effort?" one user said. 

"Is the Supreme Court also on the NRA payroll? Striking down a NY conceal carry law that’s been on the books for a century is counter productive to the alarming gun violence in America!" one user wrote, while another said, "The Supreme Court of the United States loosened US gun laws because mass shooting victims were living, breathing humans with families, not fetuses." "Only the USA could relax gun laws shortly after the mass shooting of 19 kids. The Supreme Court have proven again they are a hand picked bunch of useless fu***," one user wrote. 

The Supreme Court ruling came amid an ongoing discussion about ways to curb gun violence in the wake of the Uvalde school shooting. A deadly massacre unfolded at Robb Elementary school in Uvalde on May 24 when 18-year-old Salvador Ramos barricaded himself inside a classroom and slaughtered 19 students and two teachers. Police faced sharp criticism for allegedly failing to stop the shooting quickly enough and come to the victims' rescue on time. Ramos was shot dead by an off-duty Customs and Border Protection agent from an elite tactical unit.

In another incident in May, a racially motivated teen, Payton Gendron, gunned down ten people and injured three others at a Buffalo supermarket. The 18-year-old drove from 'hours away' in Conklin, New York, to the Tops market on Jefferson Avenue. The shooting took place in a predominantly Black neighborhood. Eleven of the victims were Black and two of them were White. Gendron has pleaded not guilty.