“The View” panel lamented the Supreme Court ruling Thursday that overturned a New York concealed carry law.
The Court ruled in the case, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Keith M. Corlett, that New York’s regulation requiring “proper cause” to obtain a license to conceal carry a handgun violates the Fourteenth Amendment by prohibiting a law-abiding citizen from bearing arms for self-defense purposes.
“Given everything New York City is going through … it’s such a middle finger to New York,” co-host Whoopi Goldberg said. “It’s a middle finger to New York because, you know, we have been trying to figure out and get a handle on all that has been going on in this city in particular, with gun laws, and it makes you wonder, what does this mean? Are we saying to people ‘yes, you can come to this city and conceal your weapon’ and now the police have to figure out who’s carrying and who’s not and who’s legal to carry? I mean, it’s insane.”
Co-host Sunny Hostin said the decision will expand the Second Amendment to every state and that concealed carry laws are stripping states’ rights.
“It’s only states’ rights when it comes to your body or mine,” Goldberg chimed in.
Co-host Sara Haines then added that increased guns in the public will harm more people, prompting co-host Ana Navarro to read from Justice Stephen Breyer’s dissenting opinion that stated 45,222 Americans were killed by gun violence in 2020. (RELATED: Joy Behar Says Republicans Will Change Laws ‘Once Black People Get Guns’)
“To me, what this decision is, is tone deaf to the very American epidemic and reality we are living,” Navarro said. “We are in a state where just a month ago, there was a mass shooting at a supermarket where people are not safe. We are at a time in American politics where the pressure and the outrage by Americans, the majority of Americans, is such that we’re finally seeing bipartisan movement in the Senate on crafting gun reform legislation.”
The panel played footage of Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn saying the National Rifle Association (NRA) has refrained from supporting any gun legislation.
Hostin said any gun legislation will be challenged legally and possibly struck down by the Supreme Court.
“Gun legislation is dead on arrival now,” Hostin said. “Because any legislation that is passed, I don’t think it’s gonna pass, is going to be challenged in court and the Supreme Court now has said you have the right to carry a gun if there’s a self-defense reason, any time, any place, anywhere.”
Goldberg said this decision will be viewed as a “misstep” by Americans and lead to a challenge in the court. Hostin said this decision will likely remain due to the conservative majority in the Court.
“This is pure insanity,” co-host Joy Behar said. “Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, said ‘today, we’re talking about rage and turning it into action.’ The people in this city are enraged as it is … and by the way, if I want to live in a gun culture state, I would have moved to Texas. I live in New York which is not a gun culture state.”
Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Thursday that the Court ceded the state’s right to restrict gun ownership, arguing that the Court wants to return to 1788 when the Second Amendment was ratified.