Justice Clarence Thomas filed
an impassioned 14-page dissent in the case, Silvester v. Bercerra, No. 17-342. “As evidenced by our continued inaction in this area,” he wrote,
“the Second Amendment is a disfavored right in this court.”
In 2008, in
District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep guns at home for self-defense.
Justice Thomas wrote that many background checks can be completed quickly and that
the cooling off period made no sense for people who already owned a gun. “Common sense suggests that subsequent purchasers contemplating violence or self-harm would use the gun they already own, instead of taking all the steps to legally buy a new one in California,” he wrote.