“A dark day for America”: From Los Angeles to New York, left-leaning Democratic states are up in arms against Thursday’s ruling by the majority conservative Supreme Court, which enshrines the right to bear arms outside from home.
• Read also: The decay of the US Supreme Court
• Read also: New Yorkers blast ‘outrageous’ Supreme Court ruling on guns
Gavin Newsom, governor of California, the most populous state in the United States, lambasted on Twitter a “shameful” and “dangerous” decision: a judgment of the highest American court which risks “encouraging a radical ideological program while restricting “the rights of states to protect their citizens (from the risk) of being shot in the streets, at school, in the Church”.
Kathy Hochul, Democratic Governor of New York State (fourth in the country, with 20 million inhabitants) denounced an “absolutely scandalous” decision and, too, a “dark day” for the supporters of more strict on the possession and carrying of weapons.
The Supreme Court in Washington, whose majority of justices are conservative, has struck down ‘restrictions’ on carrying weapons under a New York state law, even as America faces a surge in crime in large cities and a horrifying series of mass killings, including two in May in Buffalo (10 African-Americans killed) and at a school in Texas (21 killed, including 19 children).
This New York law attacked by the decision of the Supreme Court limits since 1913 the issuance of permits to carry concealed weapons to people who have reason to believe that they may have to defend themselves, for example because of their profession or threats against them.
cat and mouse
In addition to California and New York, led by Democrats, the so-called “liberal” states (which can be translated by rather “classified on the left” and “progressive”, editor’s note) of Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Hawaii and of the District of Columbia, that is to say the capital Washington, require such a license to carry weapons.
In California, the issuance of this sesame depends on the local sheriffs and police, depending on the counties and their political color.
Concretely, it is easier to obtain a permit in a rural Republican county than in San Francisco, one of the most “progressive” cities in the United States.
The shock decision of the Supreme Court does not immediately break local laws restricting the carrying of weapons, but will certainly provoke multiple legal actions.
“There will be a game of cat and mouse which will be interesting to observe” between “progressives” and conservatives, predicts Jeffrey Fagan, professor of law at Columbia in New York.
Keechant Sewell, the chief of the powerful New York City Police Department (NYPD), tasked with implementing tough-guy Mayor Eric Adams’ anti-gun agenda, has previously warned that anyone “will unlawfully carry a gun in New York will be arrested”.
Near Washington, the state of Maryland has also warned through the voice of its attorney general that its very restrictive laws against firearms “have demonstrated a reduction in violence”.
The elected official promised to “continue to fight to protect the safety of the people of Maryland”.
Likewise in the tiny state of Massachusetts: Attorney General Maura Healey pointed out that this New England state “has one of the lowest gun death rates in the country, because we know that strict laws save lives”.
–
