Pro-second Amendment New Yorkers recently gained a major victory after a Trump-appointed federal judge blocked a gun law prohibiting people from bearing firearms in places of worship.
U.S. District Judge John Sinatra Jr. labeled the law “unconstitutional,” adding that keeping the law in place would “eviscerate the Bill of Rights.”
Federal judge temporarily blocks parts of new New York gun law https://t.co/itFAR8Iftv
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 6, 2022
“The court reiterates that ample Supreme Court precedent addressing the individuals right to keep and bear arms – from Heller and McDonald to its June 2022 decision in [New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen] – dictates that New York’s new place of worship restriction is equally unconstitutional,” wrote Sinatra.
“The Constitution and the Bill of Rights are the Status quo – not 2022 legislation on the books for nine weeks.” Legislative enactments may not eviscerate the Bill of Rights. Every day they do is one too many.”
The judge finished by pointing out that just because someone’s occupying a place of worship, doesn’t mean he or she has any less of a right to defend oneself.
“The nation’s history does not countenance such an incursion into the right to keep and bear arms across all places of worship across the state,” reads Sinatra’s injunction. “The right to self-defense is no less important and no less recognized at these places.”
In October, Judge Sinatra issued a similarly worded temporary injunction on the same law.
“In Bruen, the Court made the Second Amendment test crystal clear: regulations in this area is permissible only if the government demonstrates that the regulation is consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of sufficiently analogous regulations,” wrote the judge.
“New York fails that test. The State’s exclusion is, instead, inconsistent with the Nation’s historical traditions.”
The U.S. Supreme Court’s aforementioned New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen decision categorized the longtime restrictions placed on New York concealed carriers as a violation of second and 14th Amendment rights.
“New York’s proper-cause requirement violates the Fourteenth Amendment in that it prevents law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their right to keep and bear arms,”
