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A federal court in NY will consider whether people should be allowed to carry guns in public
By
Samantha Max
Published Mar 20, 2023
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By
Samantha Max
Published Mar 20, 2023
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New York’s strict concealed carry law is under challenge, as a panel of federal judges considers a slew of legal challenges from firearm owners and dealers across the state.
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments Monday morning on a handful of lawsuits that argue the Concealed Carry Improvement Act — passed days after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the state’s prior concealed carry law — violates New Yorkers’ second amendment rights.
“Gov. Hochul promised that she was going to fight back, and the New York Assembly and [she] did just that,” said Stephen Stamboulieh, an attorney representing plaintiffs in one of the cases. “They thumbed their nose at the Supreme Court, they retaliated against the second amendment and they’re really thumbing their nose at the judiciary in general.”
It could take months or even years before the courts decide whether the law will stand in the long term. The Monday hearing will only determine if the state can continue to enforce the law while the challenges wind their way through the legal system. Experts expect that the law will eventually land back in front of the Supreme Court.
During the two-hour hearing, a state attorney defended the expansive gun regulations, which banned firearms from so-called “sensitive” areas like Times Square and added additional requirements to get a concealed carry license, including turning over a list of every social media account an applicant has used in the last three years.
“These provisions are all intended to ensure that only law-abiding and responsible people obtain firearms licenses. Those are the people that are protected by the text of the second amendment,” said Ester Murdukhayeva with the state attorney general’s office. “People who fall outside the category of law-abiding and responsible people do not have second amendment rights here.”
Lawyers for the gun owners and sellers tried to poke holes in the law — particularly a ban on firearms in places of worship, which a judge blocked in December, only to be reinstated while appeals are pending.
“When you have a law that specifically regulates how people may engage in worship, that's a burden on free exercise in and of itself, regardless of whether carrying firearms has some particular religious significance,” said Erin Murphy, an attorney representing pastor who wants to carry a firearm at his church in Horseheads, N.Y.
The panel of judges peppered both sides with questions. They pushed the attorneys to think about the limits of the law in terms of legally dubious hypotheticals: How is banning guns in private businesses — another aspect of the law — any different from a hypothetical ban on Communists in private businesses? If gun owners want to bring a firearm into private business without permission, does that mean they are also entitled to bring a firearm into someone’s home?
As the judges asked their questions, they at times mentioned their own confusion about how to make sense of a legally murky corner of the law, which has only grown murkier since the historic Supreme Court decision expanded Americans’ rights to carry firearms in public. New laws that have been created in its wake have sparked lawsuits across the country. Second amendment advocates have filed at least nine in New York since the Concealed Carry Improvement Act was passed.
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new york city
new york state
public safety
Samantha Max
Samantha reports on whether New Yorkers feel safe and whether the institutions that are supposed to protect them are working. Before coming to WNYC/Gothamist, she spent three years covering the criminal justice system in Tennessee for Nashville Public Radio. Her reporting on Nashville's police department received multiple awards, including the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize. Samantha was also part of the inaugural class of Report for America, a service journalism program that sends up-and-coming reporters to local newsrooms across the country. She is a Northwestern University grad, a Baltimore native and fluent in Spanish. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal: samanthamaxwnyc.93.
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