Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/20-843_7j80.pdf
Page Number: 84

Cite as:  597 U. S. ____ (2022) 

1 

BREYER, J., dissenting 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

_________________ 

No. 20–843 
_________________ 

NEW YORK STATE RIFLE & PISTOL ASSOCIATION, 
INC., ET AL., PETITIONERS v. KEVIN P. BRUEN, IN 
HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY AS SUPERINTENDENT 
OF NEW YORK STATE POLICE, ET AL. 

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF 
APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT 

[June 23, 2022] 

JUSTICE  BREYER,  with  whom  JUSTICE  SOTOMAYOR  and 

JUSTICE KAGAN join, dissenting. 

In 2020, 45,222 Americans were killed by firearms.  See 
Centers  for  Disease  Control  and  Prevention,  Fast  Facts: 
Firearm  Violence  Prevention  (last  updated  May  4,  2022) 
(CDC, Fast Facts), https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/ 
firearms/fastfact.html.  Since the start of this year (2022),
there have been 277 reported mass shootings—an average 
of more than one per day.  See Gun Violence Archive (last 
visited 
https://www.gunviolence 
archive.org.  Gun violence has now surpassed motor vehicle 
crashes as the leading cause of death among children and
adolescents.    J.  Goldstick,  R.  Cunningham,  &  P.  Carter,
Current  Causes  of  Death  in  Children  and  Adolescents  in 
the United States, 386 New England J. Med. 1955 (May 19, 
2022) (Goldstick).

2022), 

June 

20, 

Many States have tried to address some of the dangers of 
gun  violence  just  described  by  passing  laws  that  limit,  in
various ways, who may purchase, carry, or use firearms of 
different kinds.  The Court today severely burdens States’ 
efforts to do so.  It invokes the Second Amendment to strike 
down a New York law regulating the public carriage of con-