AFT President on Supreme Court Decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen

WASHINGTON—American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement responding to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen:

“As more decisions emerge from this court, we are seeing the majority engaged in an unprecedented rewrite of constitutional precedent. It is callously and cravenly imposing its view of who has rights and who doesn’t in the United States. This week, we saw it in the court’s weakening of the constitutional separation of church and state in Carson v. Makin. Today, in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, guns and their owners trump a state’s view as to how to protect the safety of its kids and our communities. And the leaked opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization suggests that the very personal decision about when and whether to bring a child into the world may soon be subordinate to the state. Rather than interpreting the Constitution without fear or favor, this court wants to tear up a century of settled law in the service of its radical ideology.

“For years, we have fought to keep our schools, streets and communities safe from the scourge of gun violence, but our children, parents and grandparents continue to be slaughtered—in Uvalde, in Buffalo, in Parkland, in Newtown. This ruling makes our job harder, but it will not deter us; it will not stop us from doing all we can to ensure that not one more student, not one more educator, not one more community is devastated by gun violence.”