Supreme Court strikes down New York law restricting concealed carry

A New York law that requires people applying to get a license to carry a concealed weapon to show that they have “proper cause” to carry a gun violates the Constitution, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen centers around a 1913 New York law outlining the requirements for carrying a concealed gun in public. In order to be granted a license, someone must either prove that there is a specific “proper cause,” or else have a job that makes them a target, like a judge.

The majority opinion, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, says that it is a constitutional right to carry a weapon in public for self-defense purposes.

The New York law prevents “law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their right to keep and bear arms in public,” Thomas wrote in the 6-3 ruling.

“It’s deeply disturbing and is showing an activism by these Supreme Court justices to undermine common sense state laws and precedent,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) told Fox News Digital. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) told Fox News that the ruling was a “radical decision by an increasingly radicalized Supreme Court.”

“The country doesn’t want a kid on his 18th birthday to be able to walk into a gun store with no real background checks, with no waiting period and buy a weapon and conceal that weapon and shoot a lot of people in a short period of time,” Brown said.

The Ohio senator added that the Supreme Court ruling wouldn’t impact bipartisan gun legislation working its way through Congress. The bill was written in response to mass shootings in Buffalo, N.Y., and Uvalde, Texas.

“Well, the NRA just got what they paid for with all the dark money that they spent on packing the court,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) told Fox News.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) tweeted that Congress must immediately pass gun safety legislation in response to the ruling. He also noted the recent mass shootings.

“Just weeks after mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde, as parents and young people across the country call for an end to gun violence, the far-right Supreme court has struck down one of the nation’s oldest gun safety laws,” Markey tweeted Thursday. “Congress must pass gun safety legislation now.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said the decision “will unleash even more gun violence on American communities,” adding, “This activist Supreme Court is once again legislating from the bench, but Congress must continue to legislate for a safer America.”

Sen. Chris van Hollen (D-MD) echoed his fellow Democratic senators, tweeting that “more Americans will die because of this ruling.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) and New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) both condemned the ruling.

“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,” Hochul tweeted. Adams said the ruling would “put New Yorkers at further risk of gun violence.”

The National Rifle Association (NRA) applauded the decision on Thursday. “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 chief Wayne LaPierre said in a statement.

“The right to self-defense and to defend your family and loved ones should not end at your home. This ruling brings life-saving justice to law-abiding Americans who have lived under unconstitutional regimes all across our country, particularly in cities and states with revolving door criminal justice systems, no cash bail and increased harassment of law-enforcement.”