The Conservative Supreme Court Has Picked a Cruel Time to Hear Their First Second Amendment Case in Over a Decade

As the nation reels from an endless stream of high-profile mass shootings, the majority conservative Supreme Court decided to hear a second amendment case that could potentially make it even easier to carry a gun in public.

On Monday, the Court announced they hear a New York case that challenges the state’s strict restrictions against carrying a firearm outside of the home. State law requires anyone seeking a license to carry a pistol in public to have “proper cause”; in other words, someone isn’t eligible for a license simply because they want to have a gun on them at all times, but must prove that they have a special need for such extreme levels of protection. While vague, such restrictions curtail the number of New Yorkers walking around with handguns, as do similar laws in places like California, Maryland, Hawaii, etc.

But now the Supreme Court has decided to review New York’s law, making it the first major second amendment case they’ve taken on in over a decade.

From the New York Times:

The Supreme Court now has a six-justice conservative majority, and its two newest members — Justices Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — took a broad view of Second Amendment rights as appeals court judges.

[…]

The [Court’s] most conservative members have long decried the court’s reluctance to explore the meaning and scope of the Second Amendment.

In 2017, Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, wrote that they had detected “a distressing trend: the treatment of the Second Amendment as a disfavored right.”

“For those of us who work in marbled halls, guarded constantly by a vigilant and dedicated police force, the guarantees of the Second Amendment might seem antiquated and superfluous,” Justice Thomas wrote. “But the framers made a clear choice: They reserved to all Americans the right to bear arms for self-defense.”

The cash-strapped, controversy-laden shitshow known as the National Rifle Association is ecstatic. Jason Ouimet, the Executive Director of the NRA’s lobbying body, said, “We’re confident that the Court will tell New York and the other states that our Second Amendment right to defend ourselves is fundamental, and doesn’t vanish when we leave our homes.”

Ouimet also noted the significance of this development, given the fact that the Court usually turns down Second Amendment cases. But that was before the newest addition, ultra-conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, joined the fold.

The timing couldn’t be more ghoulish. The United States has seen a spike in mass shootings in 2021, averaging more than one mass shooting each day. Indianapolis is still recovering from the mass shooting at a FedEx facility on April 16, in which a gunman shot and killed eight people. Most Americans favor stricter gun control laws, but conservatives are salivating over the prospect of making their flawed fantasy a reality: More so-called “good guys” with guns, ready and willing to stop the “bad guys.”

Of course, it doesn’t matter that their everyday American superhero is a myth; for some, the more guns in American hands, the better.