The United States Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Americans have the basic right to carry a firearm in public in a landmark decision that comes just weeks after a mass school shooting. Ruling 6-3 overturned a New York law that required a person to prove that they had legal self-defense need to receive a gun license and would have prevented the state from restricting people from carrying guns. Mass shootings increase, thousands of US citizens take to the streets to demand gun law reform
Despite growing calls for gun restrictions to surface after two mass shootings in May shocked the country, the court sided with supporters who say the US Constitution guarantees the right to own and carry a gun.
The ruling was the first by the court in a major Second Amendment case in a decade and a victory for the powerful gun lobby, the National Rifle Association.
“Today’s decision is a decisive victory for good men and women across America and is the result of decades of struggle led by the NRA,” NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said in a statement
“The right to defend yourself and to defend your family and loved ones must not end in your home,” he continued.
Judge Clarence Thomas, who wrote the majority opinion, said “The Second and Fourteenth Amendments protect the right of individuals to carry a gun in self-defense outside the home.”
