The Supreme Court has a choice: The Court can rely on the dangerous Fifth Circuit theory that guns cannot be regulated for the purpose of protecting domestic violence survivors or can sustain Federal law prevents guns from getting into the hands of dangerous individuals.
Before oral arguments were heard, there was no way of knowing how the Supreme Court would rule. The precedent set by Bruen is extremely troubling. However, even in the majority of the courts in Bruen, there was division. Judge Thomas continued to focus on historical arguments. But the concurrence of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in which Chief Justice John Roberts participated, gave way to some basic defenses, noting that “properly interpreted, the Second Amendment allows ‘variety’ of gun regulations.”
This concurrence helped inform New York’s response to Bruen. After New York State’s centuries-old gun law was repealed, I immediately took steps to restore protections from gun violence, including signing new legislation to strengthen firearm training and licensing requirements. In the spring of 2022, we strengthened our state’s red flag laws, removed guns from people like domestic abusers who pose a danger to themselves or others, and closed the loopholes. The leak could have caused tragedies in Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas. As a result, courts have issued about 9,000 high-risk protective orders in the past year, up from 1,400 orders in the previous two and a half years.
Depending on the scope of the decision of the court in Rahimi, these safeguards may also be at risk. After a brief spike at the start of the pandemic in 2020, New York is slowly and steadily returning to pre-pandemic shooting levels and has one of the five lowest gun-related death rates. . I have always said that public safety is my top priority as governor and I am committed to using every tool at my disposal to keep our communities safe from gun violence.
An extreme, out-of-control Supreme Court has put gun safety laws at risk in Bruen. Across the United States, domestic abuse survivors will now wait in awe to see if Justice Kavanaugh and his colleagues believe that survivors protection laws have the “correct” interpretation of the Constitution. law or not.
I can only imagine what my late mother would have to say about these judicial assaults on survivors of abuse. But in her honor, and on behalf of all New Yorkers, I will never stop fighting for justice.
