As Gun Deaths Skyrocket, Will the Justices Allow Guns to be Everywhere?

On November 3, the United States Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case that will decide whether the Constitution grants individuals the right to carry guns in public, not only to bear arms at home for self-protection.

The case, New York Rifle & Pistol Association v. Buren, brought by an NRA affiliate, arose after plaintiffs Robert Nash and Brandon Koch each applied for a concealed-carry firearm license for their personal protection.

The licensing officer denied the request as the two men declined to show “proper cause.” Under New York law, “proper cause” requires Nash and Koch to “demonstrate a special need for self-protection distinguishable from that of the general community.”

The Second Amendment states: “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.”

Scalia’s 2008 Majority Decision

The most recent gun precedent was District of Columbia v. Heller, written by Justice Antonin Scalia in 2008.  It protects Americans‘ rights to defend themselves at home.  

In 2010, McDonald v. Chicago affirmed that the right to own a gun at home for self-defense applied to Chicago and all states in the union.

Since McDonald, the Court has declined to address whether the right to bear arms at home extends to carrying them.

Wildcards Barrett and Roberts

Amy Coney Barrett and John Roberts are wildcards in the case.

Barrett, Scalia’s former clerk, who says Scalia’s beliefs are her own, has no record of voting for or against gun control, while Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas have publicly expressed their gun-toting views.

Chief Roberts, once a Conservative, has awarded liberals 5-4 majorities in a string of cases since Kavanaugh replaced Anthony Kennedy as the Court’s swing vote in September 2018.

Homicide Rate Surges

While the NRA (represented by Paul Clement of gerrymandering fame) niggles about the Second Amendment’s text, the CDC reported in October that US homicides surged 30 percent between 2019 and 2020, a record-breaking increase.

Gun sellers say first-time buyers are also setting records. Many first-time buyers have no idea how to load a gun, sellers say.

Must we look further than Alex Baldwin’s unintended murder of Halyna Hutchins, or then-Vice President Dick Cheney’s blasting a fellow hunter in the face and chest to realize guns should be strictly regulated?

The Exigencies of the Age

The Court will decide the Second Amendment case in June 2022 in the thick of the midterm voting season.

In an unsual move, four Justices (Stephen Breyer, Amy Coney Barrett, Samuel Alito, and Clarence Thomas) have spoken out about their fears that Americans view the Court as partisan and illegitimate.

Let’s hope one or two Conservatives justices will put aside their Second Amendment textual analysis and decide the case according to what the consummate liberal Justice Oliver Holmes, Jr., termed “the exigencies of the age.”