The closely watched ruling on the scope of Second Amendment rights comes after a series of high-profile mass shootings in recent weeks that renewed national debate over gun control and prompted a response from President Biden and Congress. Associate Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the opinion for a 6-3 majority. The decision had the potential to shift the landscape on Second Amendment rights at a time when Americans are deeply divided over access to guns. "New York’s proper-cause requirement violates the Fourteenth Amendment in that it prevents law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their right to keep and bear arms," Thomas wrote in an opinion joined by five other conservative justices. Recent shootings prompted a response from the other two branches of government. A bipartisan group of senators this week revealed the text of a sweeping gun reform package that, if passed, could end decades of partisan gridlock and inaction on the issue. In a dissent joined by the court's other two liberal justices, Associate Justice Stephen Breyer started by writing that 45,222 Americans were killed by firearms in 2020 and that gun violence has surpassed motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of death among children and adolescents.