Gun Rights vs Human Lives

The US Supreme Court in fact is setting new records for bad judgements it seems. Do Americans have the right to carry their guns in public? That was the debate, can you carry your gun in public in the US?

American states have different gun laws, half of them permit citizens to carry guns in public, no questions asked. The other half has set conditions, one must prove why they are carrying a gun in public. Lawyers call this probable cause. New York belongs to the second set of states. They require probable cause to carry firearms. One should have a good reason to carry a gun but some gun owners protested, they wanted to remove all checks on carrying guns.

Last week, the court announced its decision; at this point, it’s not even a surprise. The US Supreme Court sided with the gun owners. They struck down New York’s law which means residents can carry their guns in public, in parks, in restaurants, at concerts, etc. anywhere they want to. They do not have to give any reason for carrying a firearm.

This ruling could open the floodgates too. Gun owners in other US states can make similar challenges and needless to say the result will be the same. This ruling simply means America is back to the drawing board. Each state must draft new gun laws. They must strengthen background checks. They must reduce the buying age basically they will have to start from scratch and don’t forget the residents of New York; this ruling has left them feeling vulnerable and helpless, it’s dangerous.

According to Aimee Baptiste, a native New Yorker, “I mean as I am a native New Yorker, I always felt safe knowing I mean not that they were necessarily hidden but I just felt safer before.”

Another New York resident, “I think it’s a little bit deaf to what’s going on in the world right now, it used to be that Supreme Court decisions came out and they had people who just thought about what the law was.”

They are right, the US Supreme Court is wrong on most issues of our times; they are anti-abortion and are pro-guns as well. What explains the stone death attitude? Their politics; US Supreme Court judges are appointed by the sitting President. It has always been a political affair, the Republicans nominate conservatives and the democrats nominate moderates.

Currently, the court has a conservative majority; out of the nine judges of the Supreme Court — three are liberal, one is moderate, and five are conservative. The judgment was passed by a 6-3 majority. So, the judiciary has clearly given up. What about the politicians? They still have the power to make new laws whether on abortion or gun control or gay rights, on all these issues.

The politicians have the final say, President Joe Biden has reacted to the court’s verdict on gun laws. He has called it a bad decision. According to him, “I am disappointed in the Supreme Court gun decision, not good enough but I think it’s a bad decision. I think it’s not reasoned accurately but I am disappointed.”

Once he’s right, it is a bad decision the question is what he plans to do about it, as President, Joe Biden has a lot of powers. He can drive legislative action. He can issue executive orders. Until now, he has been reluctant to do any of that but the recent school shooting in Texas has pushed him to act. Biden has finally struck a bipartisan deal on guns. The Senate passed it, and once the house clears it, Biden can sign it into law. Some are calling it the first major gun legislation in decades but look at what it cost; the lives of 19 innocent children and two teachers. Can this law prevent a repeat of that Texas tragedy? To be honest, there is no guarantee.

This law provides millions of dollars for mental health, school safety and crisis intervention programmes. It also urges states to include juvenile records in background checks but the biggest reform is this one; the so-called boyfriend loophole, it has been shut. What is the boyfriend loophole? Until now, only spouses accused of domestic violence were stopped from buying guns, not boyfriends. Even if the boyfriend is accused of violence, he could still buy guns.

Hence the name, the boyfriend loophole, now this law puts an end to that. On the face of it, these are all good reforms but considering the scale of the problem, they are not enough. The US needs even stronger gun safety laws, even stronger background checks and most importantly, principal Supreme Court laws are meant to protect people and not to harass them. Unfortunately, that is what the American top court is doing.