Appeals court keeps New York’s gun restrictions in place, including Times Square and subway ban

NEW YORK AP No guns for Elmo Spider-Man or anyone else in New York s Times Square and don t try sneaking them into the subway either That is the decision Friday from a federal appeals court effectively upholding a New York state law that bars firearms in sensitive locations including the tourist mecca known as the crossroads of the world the New York City subway system and commuter trains The nd U S Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court judge s ruling that let the state law remain in effect after several gun owners filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of specific restrictions An appeals court ruling last year has allowed other parts of the law to remain in effect The plaintiffs Jason and Brianna Frey and William Sappe had sought a preliminary injunction blocking the enforcement of provisions in the law known as the Concealed Carry Improvement Act that have allowed officials to declare Times Square a Gun Free Zone ban open carry and require a special permit to carry guns in New York City U S District Judge Nelson Stephen Roman rejected that request leading to the appeal decided Friday A three-judge nd Circuit panel ruled that the challenged restrictions fall within the country s historical tradition of gun regulations and thus does not violate the Second Amendment right to bear arms The plaintiffs they concluded are unlikely to succeed on the merits of their arguments Times Square gun ban consistent with history judges say Banning guns in Times Square a swath of midtown Manhattan that is often teeming with sightseers and costumed movie and cartoon characters posing for pictures is similarly consistent with history dating back to medieval England of prohibiting firearms in quintessentially crowded places the judges wrote in a unanimous opinion The same holds for the subway and the Metro-North commuter rail function which connects the city with northern suburbs and Connecticut There is perhaps no citizens place more quintessentially crowded than Times Square the judge noted describing the brightly lit billboard-lined area as our modern-day electrified supersized equivalent of fairs markets and town squares of old Despite that Judges Robert D Sack Reena Raggi and Joseph F Bianco noted that they were not determining the ultimate constitutionality of the challenged provisions They returned the situation to Roman s court for further proceedings Sack was appointed to the appeals court by President Bill Clinton a Democrat Raggi was appointed by President George W Bush a Republican and Bianco was appointed by President Donald Trump a Republican The Second Circuit decision is disappointing but not unexpected considering its palpable disdain for the Second Amendment declared Amy Bellantoni a lawyer for the plaintiffs New York Attorney General Letitia James whose office defended the law in court announced in a message New Yorkers deserve to feel safe on general transportation and everywhere in our state and in the current era s decision affirms that right Common-sense gun laws save lives keep guns out of sensitive society spaces and help address the gun violence emergency commented James a Democrat New York has several of the strongest common-sense gun laws in the nation and my office will continue to defend them and protect New Yorkers Ruling is the latest one upholding New York law Friday s decision is the latest court ruling allowing the Concealed Carry Improvement Act to remain in place and it echoed rulings that have echoed similar restrictions in other places The New York law was signed in as the state s answer to a U S Supreme Court ruling that chosen of its previous gun regulations were unconstitutional Gov Kathy Hochul a Democrat and state lawmakers rewrote the regulations after the high court struck down the state s longstanding requirement that people demonstrate an peculiar threat to their safety to qualify for a license to carry handguns outside the home Last year the nd Circuit upheld other parts of the law including requirements that concealed carry permit applicants demonstrate good moral character disclose the names of household and family members submit to an in-person interview provide character references and undergo hours of training In that ruling the appeals court also upheld provisions banning the concealed carry of firearms in certain sensitive places and allowing private property owners to post signs prohibiting guns on their property Federal appeals courts around the country have ruled similarly in other states including Hawaii and Virginia and on Sept the rd U S Circuit Court of Appeals upheld New Jersey s ban on guns in sensitive places like schools and masses gatherings Those judges also cited a historical tradition of gun regulation writing that for certain discrete locations the presence of guns was historically regulated as jeopardizing the peace or posing a physical danger to others Source