FACT SHEET: RIGHT-WING SUPREME COURT SET TO EASE ACCESS TO GUNS AMID GUN VIOLENCE EPIDEMIC

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (May 26, 2022) — ​As the nation mourns yet another horrific mass shooting, the Supreme Court is poised to respond by making it even easier for murderers to access deadly weapons. The latest atrocity at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, is the 27th shooting to happen at a U.S. school so far in 2022 — a grim reality made all the more terrifying by a looming Supreme Court decision in NY State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the first major gun policy case taken up by the Court in over a decade.

Take Back the Court released a new fact sheet today laying out the stakes of the case: if the Court’s right-wing supermajority gets its way, they would make it even harder for states to protect against gun violence even as it has increased to devastating new heights.

“With gun violence skyrocketing, children afraid to go to school, and another tragedy every day, how does the right-wing Supreme Court supermajority react? By taking up the first gun case in over a decade in a transparent attempt to loosen gun safety protections,” said Take Back the Court Executive Director Sarah Lipton-Lubet. “Rather than actually serving the American people in the middle of a gun violence epidemic, the right-wing justices appear hellbent on throwing aside well-established precedent in order to deliver for gun lobbyists. How many more atrocities must we endure? How many more lives must be lost in the right-wing justices’ quest to impose their regressive agenda?

“Public safety and democratic freedoms require a Court that recognizes the human costs of gun violence and respects legal precedent and the will of the people,” Lipton-Lubet continued. “To prevent gun lobbyists from further tightening their grip on our country’s legal institutions and implementing their radical agenda, we must expand the Court.”

If the Court rules against New York’s gun safety provisions, it could open the floodgates to attacks on many essential public safety frameworks. Everything from public-carry restrictions in areas like subways and crowded stadiums to restrictions on assault weapons and large magazines to “every gun law on the books” could be put at risk.

This all comes as gun violence has risen at a terrifying rate. 45,222 people died in the U.S. from gun violence in 2020 — a sharp increase over the previous five years — and the U.S. has experienced 213 mass shootings in the first 21 weeks of this year alone. Meanwhile, gun safety regulations have the overwhelming support of the American people — 85 percent of all Americans do not want gun restrictions to be loosened and a majority wants more protections.

For more background on the case and the potential consequences of a bad ruling, check out Take Back the Court’s fact sheet here.