Democrats raise alarm after Supreme Court strikes NY concealed carry law

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NY Gov. Hochul defiant after Supreme Court gun decision: 'We're just getting started'

Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul warned that her state is "just getting started" on gun restrictions after the Supreme Court struck down a state gun control measure Thursday.

Several Democratic lawmakers expressed dismay Thursday after the Supreme Court struck down a New York law restricting concealed carry permits.

The high court ruled that the state regulations in question violated the Second Amendment in a 6-3 decision authored by Justice Clarence Thomas. The law required New York residents to prove they had "proper cause" when applying for a concealed handgun license, a standard that didn't include self defense.

"It's deeply disturbing and is showing an activism by these Supreme Court justices to undermine common sense state laws and precedent," Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., told Fox News Digital.

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Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, told Fox News that the ruling was a "radical decision by an increasingly radicalized Supreme Court."

"The country doesn't want a kid on his 18th birthday to be able to walk into a gun store with no real background checks, with no waiting period and buy a weapon and conceal that weapon and shoot a lot of people in a short period of time," Brown said.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on April 28, 2021.  (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The Ohio senator added that the Supreme Court ruling wouldn't impact bipartisan gun legislation working its way through Congress. The bill was written in response to mass shootings in Buffalo, N.Y., and Uvalde, Texas.

"Well, the NRA just got what they paid for with all the dark money that they spent on packing the court," Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., told Fox News.

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., tweeted that Congress must immediately pass gun safety legislation in response to the ruling. He also noted the recent mass shootings.

"Just weeks after mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde, as parents and young people across the country call for an end to gun violence, the far-right Supreme court has struck down one of the nation's oldest gun safety laws," Markey tweeted Thursday. "Congress must pass gun safety legislation now."

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said the decision "will unleash even more gun violence on American communities."

"This activist Supreme Court is once again legislating from the bench, but Congress must continue to legislate for a safer America," he tweeted.

Sen. Chris van Hollen, D-Md., echoed his fellow Democratic senators, tweeting that "more Americans will die because of this ruling."

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Meanwhile, Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., and Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams both condemned the ruling.

"It is outrageous that at a moment of national reckoning on gun violence, the Supreme Court has recklessly struck down a New York law that limits those who can carry concealed weapons," Hochul tweeted.

Adams said the ruling would "put New Yorkers at further risk of gun violence."