The United States of America faces an unprecedented gun violence crisis, as mass shootings have now averaged more than one per day. As of January 1, 2023, the U.S.A. has suffered over 200 mass shootings, surpassing the number of days since the year began. Accordingly, the central point of contention regarding this bloody epidemic of human carnage concerns the ease of access to high-powered and other types of military-grade weapons, including but not limited to assault rifles, a result of the Supreme Court of the United States ruling in the District of Columbia v. Heller case from 2008, where the Court ruled that the individual civilian right to possess firearms unconnected with militia service is guaranteed by the Second Amendment. In 2010, the Supreme Court reaffirmed the Heller ruling in the McDonald v. Chicago case by incorporating the Second Amendment through the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause, making it fully applicable against the states and severely restricting the extent to which states could legally enact gun control legislation. Last year, in the case of New York State Rifle and Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen (2022), the Supreme Court essentially prohibited stringent gun control legislation from being enacted, having decided that lower courts cannot consider governmental or public interests, such as enhancing security, when evaluating conflicts between gun control laws and the Second Amendment. However, the Supreme Court's consistent rulings upholding individual gun rights comprise erroneous misinterpretations of the Second Amendment. This publication primarily incorporates applied, analytical, and doctrinal legal research to thoroughly examine numerous judicial, procedural and substantive aspects relating to the U.S. Supreme Court's interpretation and ruling that the Second Amendment guarantees the individual right to possess firearms. This publication aims to investigate the flawed nature of the Supreme Court's pro-gun precedent. Pertinent ethical considerations concerning the exigency of implementing stricter gun control legislation throughout the United States of America will also be analyzed. The statistics presented are secondary external data.
