Gun owners celebrate after federal appeals court shoots down parts of New York’s strict conceal carry laws including ban on firearms in houses of worship in shock 261-page decision

Gun owners rejoiced after a federal appeals court struck down some of New York’s strict concealed carry laws.

A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked aspects of the State’s Concealed Carry Improvement Act in a 261-page decision.

The bill was passed by Democrats last year in response to a Supreme Court ruling that declared previous concealed carry permit requirements unconstitutional.

But a federal appeals court struck down parts of the law, including the ban on bringing firearms into houses of worship.

The court also rejected a requirement that firearms license applicants provide a list of social media accounts they have maintained over the past three years, citing free speech concerns.

Gun owners rejoiced after a federal appeals court struck down some of New York’s strict concealed carry laws.

The bill was passed by Democrats last year in response to a Supreme Court ruling that declared previous concealed carry permit requirements unconstitutional. Pictured: New York Governor Kathy Hochul.

The court also said the state could not enforce part of the law that makes it a crime to carry a concealed weapon on private property without the owner’s express consent. the owner put up a sign saying guns are welcome.

However, it allowed the state to continue banning guns in so-called “sensitive” areas such as public transportation, hospitals and schools.

Other controversial aspects, including requiring gun applicants to demonstrate good moral character and disclose information about members of their household and family on the permit application, were upheld.

Gun rights activists applauded the decision but insisted that the justices failed to faithfully apply Supreme Court precedent and that the entire law should be struck down.

Erich Pratt of Gun Owners of America, a lobbying group involved in the lawsuit, said the group is weighing whether to take the case to the Supreme Court.

“Governor (Katie) Hochul and her clique in Albany never seem to get that message, and in turn Gun Owners of America is proud to have played a major role in condemning her unconstitutional law,” he said in his statement.

“However, it was not a complete victory, and we will continue to fight until this entire law is consigned to the bowels of history where it belongs.”

But a federal appeals court struck down some provisions, including a ban on bringing firearms into houses of worship.

The appeals court’s decision was early in a legal battle that is expected to eventually head back to the Supreme Court after justices struck down New York’s old rules in 2022 about obtaining a license to carry a handgun outside the home.

For decades, the ability to legally carry guns in public was limited to people who could prove they had a special need for protection.

Government officials responded by developing legislation that would open the door to more people getting a firearms license, but also put a host of new restrictions on where guns could be carried.

Lawmakers, acting months after a white supremacist killed 10 black people at a Buffalo supermarket, banned guns in places such as public playgrounds and schools, theaters, places that sell alcohol, buses and airports.

Numerous lawsuits were filed challenging the rules, leading to a series of lower court decisions that upheld some provisions of the new New York law but ruled that other aspects of it were unconstitutional.

In their ruling Friday, the justices wrote that the state’s requirement to require pistol license applicants to be of good moral character is not “personally unconstitutional.”

“A reasoned refusal to issue a gun license to a person who, if armed, would pose a danger to himself, others, or the public is consistent with the well-established historical tradition of preventing dangerous people from owning guns,” the court wrote. .

But judges ruled against requiring firearms license applicants to provide a list of their social media accounts.

“Requiring applicants to disclose even the pseudonyms under which they post online constitutes an impermissible violation of Second Amendment rights that is unsupported by a parallel in the historical record and, in addition, poses a serious First Amendment concern,” the court wrote.

A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked aspects of the State’s Concealed Carry Improvement Act in a 261-page decision.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in its ruling last year striking down old gun regulations in New York, suggested that some restrictions on who can carry guns and where they can be carried are acceptable as long as they are consistent with the long tradition of gun regulation in the United States.

Since then, judges have scrambled to apply that finding, examining old gun regulations from decades or even centuries ago, often coming to very different conclusions.

In their ruling Friday, the 2nd Circuit judges suggested that some lower courts had been too dismissive of some of the “historical analogues” offered by the state as evidence that its restrictions on guns in sensitive areas are consistent with the nation’s regulatory tradition.

But regarding the ban on guns in houses of worship, the court ruled that the state potentially violated religious freedom by creating a different set of rules for churches, synagogues and mosques than for places where groups of people gather for secular activities.

“New York State cannot tell houses of worship how they protect their people,” said Jeremy Dice, senior counsel at the First Liberty Institute, which is representing the pastor suing for violating the law.

“At this stage, the State has not demonstrated that allowing church leaders to regulate the use of firearms by parishioners is more dangerous than allowing other property owners to do the same,” the judges wrote.

“It is difficult to see how the law advances the interests of religious organizations in general by depriving them of the freedom to choose for themselves whether to allow the use of firearms.”

New York Governor Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James said the decision will keep New Yorkers safe.

“This common sense law was passed to keep guns out of dangerous hands and away from schools, hospitals, parks, public transportation and other sensitive locations,” James said in a statement.