Two infamous rulings by the Supreme Court put America to shame

Gun Control

The other contemptable ruling of the Supreme Court relates to gun control, especially egregious in the wake of recent mass shootings that have claimed the lives of 67 Americans and injured a further 265 in the past month alone. In this case the Court struck down a century-old New York law requiring those seeking to carry firearms in public to demonstrate need. The law was overturned with Justice Clarence Thomas writing the majority opinion, arguing that the provision was inconsistent with the Second Amendment.

In other words, at a time when the country is literally consuming itself with gun violence, when mass shootings have reached epidemic proportions, when gun violence is the leading cause of death among children in this country, the Supreme Court has decided to make it easier for people to carry guns in public. And this ruling will not affect New York alone: many states have similar laws on the books, and they are all now scrambling to revise these laws so that they are honor the Court's ruling while maintaining restrictions wherever possible.

To grasp just how epidemic mass shootings have become in this country: since the shooting rampage in Uvalde, Texas on May 24, which left twenty-two dead, there have been 82 mass shootings. The Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting as an incident in which at least four victims are shot (injured or killed), not including the shooter. On Saturday, May 28 alone there were five mass shootings, which left two dead and twenty people injured. The very next day, Sunday, May 29, there were seven mass shootings, which left four dead and thirty-five people injured. Since Uvalde, there have been 64 school incidents involving guns.

The United States is a country inundated with guns (with over 120 firearms for every 100 citizens): is it any wonder that rarely a day goes by without a mass shooting somewhere? We have grown to accept gun violence as an ineliminable feature of daily life in America, and that perhaps is the greatest tragedy of all. If we grow numb to this horror and shame, we will never mitigate the scourge of mass shootings and other forms of gun violence.

The Supreme Court has been politized and lost its credibility and its responsibility to render justice. It is time to revisit the process of appointing Supreme Court Justices to ensure that the highest Court in the land is apolitical, fair, and just. Every sensible American should be disgusted by these two infamous Supreme Court rulings that will endanger the lives of countless Americans, stain the Court's reputation for decades to come, and sadly put America to shame.