(The Center Square) — A federal appellate court has upheld New York restrictions barring gun owners from carrying weapons in parks, bars and other “sensitive” locations but struck down other portions of the controversial law.
In its Friday ruling, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court decision that gutted the law, establishing a list of public areas where firearms are not permitted. The three-judge panel lifted that order, saying most of the gun law’s restrictions were consistent with the country’s history of regulating firearms in public areas.
But the appellate panel also struck down the state’s ban on guns by default on private property and said it will block the state from enforcing a ban on firearms at churches, synagogues and other houses of worship.
Justices said the state “has not demonstrated that allowing church leaders to regulate their congregants’ firearms is more dangerous than allowing other property owners to do the same.”
“It’s hard to see how the law advances the interests of religious organizations, as a whole, by denying them agency to choose for themselves whether to permit firearms,” the justices wrote in the 261-page ruling.
The court also overturned a provision of the law that requires concealed carry permit applicants to disclose their social media account, saying it “imposes an impermissible infringement on Second Amendment rights that is unsupported by analogues in the historical record and moreover presents serious First Amendment concerns.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat who backed the law, said the ruling allows the state to continue to enforce most provisions of its new gun-control law.
“My office will continue to defend New York’s gun laws and use every tool to protect New Yorkers from senseless gun violence,” James said in a statement.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat who initially proposed changes, also praised the court’s ruling and defended the state’s “common-sense protections to strengthen background checks, protect sensitive locations, and ensure permits are issued responsibly.”
The lawsuit is one of many legal challenges to New York’s strict new gun control policy enacted after a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision last year overturned previous restrictions.
The high court’s landmark decision in the N.Y. State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen case struck down a New York law requiring applicants to show “proper cause” to get a permit to carry a firearm.
The court’s conservative majority affirmed the constitutional right to carry firearms in public places for self-defense, which has prompted reviews of firearm licensing laws in New Jersey and other states that heavily restrict gun ownership.
But the ruling prompted New York and other Democrat-led states to tighten their gun laws to further restrict firearm carrying, which spurred other legal challenges from Second Amendment groups.
“Governor Hochul and her cabal in Albany never seem to get the message, and in turn, GOA is proud to have played a major role in rebuking her unconstitutional law,” Erich Pratt of the Gun Owners of America, one of the litigants in the case, said in a statement. “Nevertheless, this was not a total victory, and we will continue the fight until this entire law is sent to the bowels of history where it belongs.”
