Earlier this week, the Supreme Court of the United States ordered a lower court to officially reconsider a gun control law that had been passed in Massachusetts, as the nation’s highest court reaffirms Second Amendment protections.
As Just The News reports, the case against the Massachusetts law was brought by a resident of the state who had been prohibited from purchasing pistols after having been convicted of unlawful possession of a handgun back in 2004. In response to the challenge, the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts determined that the state law was constitutional, with an appeals court agreeing with the district court’s ruling.
But this week, the Supreme Court ordered that the lower court’s ruling be vacated, and declared that the case be “remanded to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit for further consideration.”
The Supreme Court had previously issued a major pro-Second Amendment ruling earlier this year in the case of New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn., Inc. v. Bruen, which determined that states may not place undue burdens on residents who are simply seeking permits to carry handguns. The case specifically declared that states cannot force residents to demonstrate subjective reasons for applying for such permits.
“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,” said Justice Clarence Thomas in the majority opinion. “We know of no other constitutional right that an individual may exercise only after demonstrating to government officers some special need.”