Due to the incidents of mob firing in America, the demand for a ban on openly carrying guns there had intensified. Meanwhile, in the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen case, the US Supreme Court said – Americans cannot be barred from carrying guns. Nor can any term be added to it. It is a fundamental right of Americans to carry a gun.
Due to the recent mass shooting incidents in America, demonstrations are going on demanding gun control. Meanwhile, the US Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a New York gun law enacted more than a century ago. Under that law, people could not carry a weapon outside the house without a license. This is a big system in terms of gun rights. The court judges’ decision came on the basis of a 6-3 vote division.
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote, “New York issues licenses to publicly carry guns to applicants who seek permission to do so in self-defense. This state’s licensing regime violates the Constitution.”
This is the first time that the court, while commenting on the constitutional right to own a gun in private, said that this right also allows the carrying of weapons in public places.
After this decision, people will be able to legally carry handguns on the streets of big cities of America including New York, Los Angeles and Boston as well as other places. A quarter of the US population lives in the states where this system will be in effect. This is the first Supreme Court decision on gun culture in more than a decade. The court order comes at a time when Congress is actively working on arms legislation following the recent mass shootings in Texas, New York and California.
President Joe Biden is angry with this decision of the Supreme Court. He says that this is a decision taken without common sense. Everyone should object to this decision. Biden wanted to end gun culture. He was of the opinion that either the gun culture should end or the age of buying a gun should be increased from 18 years to 21 years.
Buying a gun is like buying fruits and vegetables in
America, the history of gun culture in America is about 230 years old. Under the Second Amendment to the Constitution in 1791, American citizens were given the right to keep and buy arms. This culture started in America when the British ruled there. At that time there was no permanent security force, that’s why people were given the right to keep weapons for the safety of themselves and family, but this law of America continues even today.
- America has not ended its gun culture even after 230 years. There are two main reasons for this. First- Many Americans have been advocating for maintaining this culture from the President to the Governor of the states there. From Theodore Roosevelt to Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter, George Bush Sr., George W. Bush and Donald Trump, many US presidents have advocated gun culture.
- According to a Gallup 2020 report, 91% of Democratic Party members were in favor of a strict gun law, while only 24% of the Republican Party were in favor of it. Joe Biden is from the Democratic Party, while Donald Trump is from the Republican Party.
- The second reason gun manufacturers, ie the gun lobby, is also the main reason for the survival of this culture. According to a 2019 report, there were 63 thousand licensed gun dealers in the US, who sold guns worth Rs 83 thousand crores to American citizens that year.
- The National Rifle Association (NRI) is the most powerful gun lobby in America, which spends a lot of money to influence the members of parliament there. This powerful lobby has been opposing changes to the proposed Second Constitutional Amendment to end gun culture.
- In many US elections, the pro-gun lobby has spent more money than the lobby demanding a ban on guns. In 2020, the pro-gun lobby spent about $32 million, while the anti-gun lobby was able to spend $22 million.
- Several US states have also been lifting gun restrictions. In June 2021, Texas passed a bill allowing its citizens to own handguns without a license and training. In April 2021, another US state, Georgia, allowed civilians to keep weapons without a permit and license.
