After the recent mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, Congress enacted the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the most important gun violence prevention law in three decades. But days earlier, on June 23, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen marked a major step backward.
Guns, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are the most common cause of death among Americans under the age of 25. The Supreme Court, in ruling that it is unconstitutional for the state of New York to require gun owners to obtain a permit to carry a concealed handgun in public places, made it much more likely that this trend will continue.
Justice Clarence Thomas’s majority opinion — signed by six of the nine justices — relies on the incorrect interpretation in the 2008 District of Columbia v. Heller ruling by Justice Antonin Scalia, which ignored the Second Amendment’s history and its preamble.
