President Joe Biden expressed frustration Thursday with the Supreme Court’s ruling defending private gun ownership in New York.
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 against a New York law requiring “proper cause” to obtain a concealed carry license in the state.
“The constitutional right to bear arms in public for self-defense is not ‘a second-class right, subject to an entirely different body of rules than the other Bill of Rights guarantees,'” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his majority opinion.
Associate Justice Clarence Thomas sits during a group photo at the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, April 23, 2021 (Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP, Pool, File).
But Biden issued a statement noting he was “deeply disappointed” by the ruling.
“This ruling contradicts both common sense and the Constitution and should deeply trouble us all,” he wrote.
The president cited the recent mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde Texas as an argument to limit gun rights.
“[W]e must do more as a society — not less — to protect our fellow Americans,” he wrote.
Despite the ruling in favor of the Second Amendment, Biden called on more states and localities to enact gun control.
“I urge states to continue to enact and enforce common sense laws to make their citizens and communities safer from gun violence,” he said.
Biden also urged Americans to protest the Supreme Court decision.
“I call on Americans across the country to make their voices heard on gun safety,” he concluded. “Lives are on the line.”
On Sunday, Biden said he was proud of his home state of Delaware for passing an “assault weapons” ban and urged other states to do the same.
“Look, there’s more than — that old saw — more than one way to skin a cat,” he said. “But it’d be better if we had better regulation of the sale of firearms nationally and nationally mandated.”