The U.S. Supreme Court just infringed on California’s right to protect you from gun violence

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision to strike down New York’s law restricting the right to carry guns in public doesn’t immediately affect California — but it’s just a matter of time before our law is challenged.

So ask yourself, how safe will you feel knowing the person sitting next to you at a Little League game, waiting in your line at the grocery store or mouthing off at a party could have a firearm tucked in a waistband or hidden in purse?

Granted, people already carry weapons around in public, legally and illegally, but this ruling allows the practice to become more widespread than ever.

And that’s all thanks to conservatives on the Supreme Court who could care less about what they’ve just unleashed on our nation — a nation already living in fear that the next mass shooting will be at their workplace or their children’s school or a local nightclub.

Ironically, the court’s decision comes just as lawmakers are congratulating themselves for reaching a bipartisan agreement on a gun bill. If it passes, the bill will strengthen background checks and encourage states to pass “red-flag” laws — puny measures that fall far short of what’s needed.

Still, it’s a small step forward — but now it’s overshadowed by one of the worst decisions in the history of the Supreme Court.

Gun control advocates are calling the latest ruling a nightmare and — more frightening still — they point out that it opens the door to prohibiting other types of restrictions, including limits on the types of weapons that can be sold legally.

In a piece for Slate Magazine, senior writer Mark Joseph Stern says the ruling “abolished the ability of the courts to consider the real-world impact of firearms.”

Indeed, the conservative justices ignored hard evidence that relaxing restrictions on carrying guns in public will have deadly consequences.

“States with RTC (right to carry) laws report increased lethality arising from mundane situations, such as road rage, unintentional shootings, and incidents of well-intentioned permit holders elevating the crime count by shooting an innocent party or being killed by the criminal,” social scientists and public health researchers wrote in a brief submitted to the court.

And let’s not ignore the role of Murphy’s Law — the inevitability that whatever can go wrong will go wrong when more people, including people with limited experience with weapons, carry guns around in public for no good reason, other than some vague notion that they will be better protected.

Remember the 29-year-old mother shot dead by her 2-year-old, who was sitting in a shopping cart when he grabbed a gun from her purse at an Idaho Walmart?

That’s just one in a slew of similar incidents.

Another real-world example: Three years ago, the then-police chief of San Luis Obispo absentmindedly left her gun inside the restroom of a fast-food restaurant, where it was picked up by another customer who promptly took it home.

The weapon was safely recovered, but the consequences could have been far worse.

Mind you, this happened to a chief of police with years of experience in handling weapons.

And now millions of gun owners in California soon could have the right to carry a gun just about anywhere they please? (Guns could still be restricted from certain “sensitive places,” such as schools and government buildings.)

Look for gun deaths and injuries to escalate if California is required to drop a requirement that applicants for “concealed carry” permits prove they have a compelling need — or “good cause” — to carry a weapon outside the home.

The definition of “good cause” differs by jurisdiction, but typically applicants must show they are in danger because they or their family members have been threatened or they have a high-risk job.

The Supreme Court says even that minimal showing of need is contrary to the Second Amendment.

Justice Clarence Thomas, who wrote the majority decision, concluded that gun owners need offer no such explanation — that the Second Amendment gives them the intrinsic right to carry weapons wherever they please, with the exception of those “sensitive places.”

How safe do you feel now?