Judges on the US Supreme Court have struck down a New York law that restricts carrying concealed firearms outside the home.
The 6-3 ruling, in line with the court’s conservative majority, found the 1913 law violated a person’s right to keep and bear arms under the US Constitution.
Justice Clarence Thomas declared the Constitution protected ‘an individual’s right to carry a handgun for self-defence outside the home’.
But liberal Justice Stephen Breyer wrote the court had expanded gun rights without wrestling with the ‘nature or severity’ of firearms violence in a country where there were more guns per person than any other nation.
New York governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, called the ruling ‘absolutely shocking’ and said she was ‘sorry this dark day has come’.
The justices overturned a lower court ruling that threw out a challenge to the law by two gun owners and the New York affiliate of the National Rifle Association.
Their decision, which affects at least six states, comes after 19 children and two teachers were at a primary school in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24 and 10 people were slain at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, on May 14.
President Joe Biden has advocated for new gun restrictions and has called firearms violence a ‘national embarrassment’.
Senators were yesterday poised for a vote to advance a bipartisan gun control bill that supporters hope will help curb mass shootings.
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