(Removes typo in first paragraph in the word “new”)
By Nate Raymond
(Reuters) -A U.S. appeals court on Friday upheld much of a New York gun control law enacted after a Supreme Court ruling last year expanded gun rights but blocked the state from enforcing new restrictions against carrying firearms on private property open to the public.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned lower-court rulings holding that bans on carrying a firearms in “sensitive places” like parks, zoos, bars and theaters violated citizens’ right to keep and bear arms under the Constitution’s Second Amendment.
But the court said the state had failed to show how a provision making it felony to carry a gun on private property open to the public without the property owner’s express consent was consistent with conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court’s gun rights ruling.
The three-judge panel also barred the Democratic-led state from enforcing a provision that required concealed carry permit applicants to disclose their social media accounts.
“The State points to no historical law conditioning lawful carriage of a firearm on disclosing one’s pseudonyms or, more generally, on informing the government about one’s history of speech,” the panel wrote.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat who defended the law in court, in a statement said the ruling would allow the state to enforce a majority of New York’s “common sense” concealed carry requirements.
“My office will continue to defend New York’s gun laws and use every tool to protect New Yorkers from senseless gun violence,” she said.
Representatives for plaintiffs who were challenging it did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The 261-page ruling came in a series of legal challenges by gun rights groups and New York residents to the Concealed Carry Improvement Act, which Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law in July 2022.
The law was enacted after the Supreme Court that June struck down the state’s strict gun permitting regime and declared for the first time that the U.S. Constitution protects a person’s right to carry a handgun in public for self-defense.
The ruling, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v Bruen, also set out a new test to assess the constitutionality of gun laws by holding they must be “consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
The new law expanded who could seek a license to carry a handgun outside the home but required applicants to establish that they possess “good moral character,” undergo additional training and submit information about their social media accounts and people with whom they live.
It also established a long list of “sensitive locations” including churches, medical offices, public parks and theaters where carrying a gun would be a felony even for license holders.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in BostonEditing by Marguerita Choy)
