In our brief, breaking account yesterday of the Supreme Court striking down New York’s restriction on law-abiding gun owners carrying weapons outside their homes, I said that the ruling seemed obvious based on the Constitution and previous SCOTUS rulings. If the right to bear arms shall not be infringed, and the Court has affirmed that personal right, then forcing people to prove to the state that they have a specific need to carry a firearm outside their homes seems clearly to be an infringement – especially when the reason for needing one for self-defense is so obvious in a place like New York, where other liberal policies have created a violent crime wave. It’s already so obvious to most people that the ruling will have no effect on existing laws in 43 states, as law professor and Instapundit blogmaster Glenn Reynolds explained.

https://instapundit.com/527401/

Still, the ruling set off a predictable hair-on-fire reaction on the left. New York Mayor Eric Adams pulled out the tired “it will be like the Wild West” gun control trope. Critics responded that if he means people will be going around randomly shooting and robbing victims, that was already happening in New York under this law, which is precisely why New Yorkers want to carry guns in public for self-protection. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul also condemned the ruling and vowed to impose even more (unconstitutional?) restrictions on gun owners.

https://www.westernjournal.com/ny-governor-kathy-hochul-melts-supreme-court-strikes-states-unconstitutional-gun-restriction/

And once again showing his contempt for “our democracy” whenever the Courts don’t rule his way, President Biden condemned the ruling and his DOJ issued a statement disagreeing with it. They’re supposed to be an objective law enforcement agency, but this suggests, once again, that they will ignore Court rulings that go against their political beliefs.

https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2022/06/23/dems-lose-their-minds-doj-makes-concerning-statement-on-scotus-gun-rights-decision-n582973

As Prof. Reynolds observed, “When Democrats like what the Court does, it’s the supreme law of the land. When they don’t like it, it’s just, like, some court’s opinion, man.”

The most amusingly clueless reaction came from Keith Olbermann, who made news with a deranged Twitter rant calling for the Supreme Court to be dissolved and its ruling ignored (sounds like insurrection), claiming they were “forcing guns” onto states (by affirming the Constitutional rights of citizens to carry guns they already own?) and taking a sexist swipe at Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Even though he got deservedly roasted, it must have given him a nostalgic feeling to once again get a little attention with a deranged rant.

https://twitchy.com/samj-3930/2022/06/23/insurrection-y-keith-olbermann-claiming-its-necessary-to-dissolve-scotus-while-melting-down-over-gun-ruling-backfires-pun-intended/

To give you an idea of how out of step with current Second Amendment trends the New York law was, here’s a map showing the states that allow concealed carry with those that put conditions on it colored blue. Notice the blue is all concentrated in the upper Northeast except for California, the only state in blue west of Pennsylvania.

https://concealedguns.procon.org/state-by-state-concealed-carry-permit-laws/

Finally, it was illuminating to see how many of the left’s objections to the ruling completely ignored the Constitution and instead were based on emotional appeals and well-worn gun control tropes that were completely irrelevant to the case. Even the three liberal Justices' dissent was based on those arguments. It was so utterly beside-the-point that Justice Alito wrote a concurring opinion that’s well worth checking out, just to see how he systematically exposed the faulty logic in each of their objections.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2022/06/23/alito-takes-a-blow-torch-to-liberal-justices-opinion-on-latest-gun-case-n2609218