In New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, the Court Expands Gun Rights in America, Limiting States’ Authority to Decide Who Carries in Public
Nina Vinik, Project Unloaded’s Founder and an Attorney and Gun Policy Expert, Called the Decision “Alarming, Dangerous and Contrary to our Nation’s History and Tradition of Regulating Guns in Public Places”
CHICAGO — On Thursday, the Supreme Court issued its ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen. The court opted to limit states’ authority to decide who can carry a gun in public and what limits states can put in place to improve public safety. In response to the ruling, Project Unloaded released the following statement from its founder, Nina Vinik.
“This decision is alarming, dangerous and contrary to our nation’s history and tradition of regulating guns in public places,” said Nina Vinik, founder and executive director of Project Unloaded. “With this decision, the Court’s conservative majority has delivered a clear message that guns enjoy more constitutional protection than the families and communities that are harmed by gun violence. If we can’t trust that the courts will uphold reasonable limits on guns that protect public health and safety, we must find new ways to stop a crisis that kills more than 110 Americans every day and wounds hundreds more.”
A nationally recognized expert in gun law and policy, Vinik served as Program Director at the Joyce Foundation and Legal Director of Legal Community Against Violence (now Giffords Law Center) before founding Project Unloaded. Her legal career also includes serving as Director of the American Bar Association’s Litigation Assistance Partnership Project and working as a civil rights attorney with the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Inc., and the ACLU Foundation of Florida.
Project Unloaded, which launched in early 2022, is working to change the cultural narrative about gun ownership and safety. The organization’s first campaign reaches young people, the majority of whom say they’re interested in gun ownership, on the social media platforms where they already spend their time to educate them on the risks of using guns. By flipping the script on gun culture and pushing back directly on the myth that more guns make us safer, the organization believes it can save lives.
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