New York’s Gun Law Gets Reprieve From Second Circuit

An expanded Times Square will remain a “Gun Free Zone,” for now, after a federal appeals court on Wednesday allowed New York to continue enforcing its new gun law as it considers a lower court ruling that would block key provisions.The decision from a rider of the Second Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals, Eunice Lee, came six days after a federal district judge at Syracuse declared multiple portions of the law unconstitutional and placed a temporary hold on them.The state promptly appealed the order. The decision puts a hold on Judge Glenn Suddaby’s order until a three-judge panel of circuit riders can make a decision on the state’s motion.Judge Lee, a nominee of President Biden, has ridden the Second Circuit since August 2021.Judge Suddaby on Thursday had put a hold on several of the state’s new licensing rules for carrying handguns in public, including one that made applicants turn over information about their social media accounts.The judge also chipped away at the list of “sensitive” locations where people cannot carry guns. He said the state couldn’t ban people from carrying guns in New York City’s subway system or at Times Square. In establishing the “Gun Free Zone,” lawmakers enlarged the geographical boundaries of Times Square to span a large area of Midtown West between Sixth Avenue and Ninth Avenue.Attorney General Letitia James said she was pleased the law would stay in effect.“My office will continue our efforts to protect the safety of everyday New Yorkers and defend our common-sense gun laws,” she said in a prepared release.Governor Hochul and lawmakers rewrote the state’s handgun laws this summer after a Supreme Court ruling invalidated New York’s old system for granting permits to carry handguns outside the home. The strict licensing regime amounted to a de facto handgun ban in the state, gun rights advocates contended.The high court struck down as unconstitutional the state’s longstanding requirement that people demonstrate an unusual threat to their safety to qualify for such a license. “We know of no other constitutional right that an individual may exercise only after demonstrating to government officers some special need,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. “That is not how the First Amendment works when it comes to unpopular speech or the free exercise of religion,” Justice Thomas concluded. “And it is not how the Second Amendment works when it comes to public carry for self defense.”

New York’s Gun Law Gets Reprieve From Second Circuit

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