In a major expansion of gun rights, the US Supreme Court has ruled that Americans have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defence.
The decision follows recent mass shootings and is expected to ultimately allow more people to legally carry guns on the streets of the nation's largest cities — including New York, Los Angeles and Boston — as well as elsewhere.
About a quarter of the US population lives in states that are expected to be affected by the ruling, which struck down a New York gun law.
The decision, the Supreme Court's first major gun decision in more than a decade, was 6-3, with the court's conservatives in the majority and liberals in dissent.
This ruling comes as Congress is actively working on gun legislation after recent mass shootings where 19 children and two teachers were killed on May 24 at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and 10 people were slain on May 14 at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York.
In a statement, US President Joe Biden said he was "deeply disappointed" by the Supreme Court's ruling which, he said, "contradicts both common sense and the constitution, and should deeply trouble us all".
In the opinion itself, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the conservative majority that the constitution protects "an individual's right to carry a handgun for self-defence outside the home".
In their decision, the justices struck down a New York law that required people to demonstrate a particular need for carrying a gun in order to get a licence to carry one in public.
The justices said the requirement violated the Second Amendment right to "keep and bear arms".
NY still in mourning over Buffalo shooting
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said the decision comes at a particularly painful time, when New York is still mourning the deaths of 10 people in a mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo.
However, the plaintiff in the case before the Supreme Court was the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association and its president, Tom King.
"The lawful and legal gun owner of New York State is no longer going to be persecuted by laws that have nothing to do with the safety of the people and will do nothing to make the people safer," a relieved Mr King said.
Backers of New York's law had argued that striking it down would, ultimately, lead to more guns on the streets and higher rates of violent crime.
Firearms safety groups and gun control activists feared that a sweeping ruling against New York could undermine gun measures such as "red flag" laws and jeopardise bans on guns in sensitive places, such as airports, courthouses, hospitals and schools.
Reverend Patrick Mahoney — a faith leader who is calling for an end to gun violence — was outside the US Supreme Court as it handed down its ruling and described his dismay at the timing of the ruling.
"Across the street right now, congress is debating gun reform. How will this terrible, tragic decision impact that?" he said.
"The Supreme Court today could not have issued a worse decision on that," he added.
But Steve Brown, a Virginia man who was also at the court on Thursday, was there to celebrate.
"Why is New York different?" he asked while wearing a cap bearing the logo of America's gun lobby, the National Rifle Association.
"Americans should have the same rights no matter where they live.
First major Supreme Court decision on firearms in a decade
In most of the country, gun owners have little difficulty legally carrying their weapons in public, but that has been harder to do in New York and a handful of states with similar laws.
New York's law — which has been in place since 1913 — says that, to carry a concealed handgun in public, a person applying for a licence has to show "proper cause", a specific need to carry the weapon.
The state issues unrestricted licences where a person can carry their gun anywhere, and restricted licences that allow a person to carry the weapon but just for specific purposes, such as hunting and target shooting, or to and from their place of business.
It was 2010 when the Supreme Court last issued a major gun decision. In that decision, and a ruling from 2008, the justices established a nationwide right to keep a gun at home for self-defence.
The question for the court this time was about carrying one outside the home.
Later this week, the US Senate is poised for a vote to advance a bipartisan gun control bill that supporters hope will help curb mass shootings, in what could become the first new federal gun law in decades.
ABC/Reuters/AP
