The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down as unconstitutional New York state’s limits on carrying concealed handguns in public, handing a landmark victory to gun rights advocates in a nation deeply divided over how to address firearms violence.

The 6-3 ruling, with the court’s conservative justices in the majority and liberal justices in dissent, found that the state’s law, enacted in 1913, violated a person’s right to “keep and bear arms” under the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment.

In an opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas, the justices overturned a lower court ruling throwing out a challenge to the law by two