SCOTUS Pushed America a Huge Step Backward on Gun Safety, Just As Congress Was Finally Going to Act

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

61% : What is so striking -- and pernicious -- about Thomas's opinion is that it largely removes the ability of state officials to take into account the societal effects and inherent dangers of increased gun ownership.
57% : In a 6-3 decision, authored by Justice Clarence Thomas, the Court not only enshrined a constitutional right to carry guns outside the home for "self-defense," but has potentially made it far more difficult for states to regulate gun rights.
52% : "Instead," says Thomas, "the government must affirmatively prove that its firearms regulation is part of the historical tradition that delimits the outer bounds of the right to keep and bear arms."
48% : Thomas's opinion, however, does more than just strike down tough permitting laws regulating the carrying of handguns in public -- it establishes an entirely new set of gun rights.
47% : The Court throwing into doubt a broad swathe of gun control regulations, passed by elected state legislators, is practically the definition of judicial activism.
45% : In overturning New York state's ban on concealed carry, the Supreme Court made bipartisan efforts at sensible gun regulations all but moot.
42% : According to Thomas, history and textual interpretation are the only considerations that states can take into effect when passing gun laws -- not public safety and not the specific contexts in which Americans live and work.
41% : In effect, the Court has placed the Second Amendment in the same rarefied air as the First Amendment.

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