NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) -- New York Attorney General Letitia James asked a federal appeals court Monday to keep the state’s new concealed carry gun law in effect as officials appeal last week’s ruling by a federal judge, who found multiple provisions of the law unconstitutional.
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In Monday's motion, James said keeping the law in place was a matter of public safety as the appeals process plays out and that it would “preserve the status quo” after the new law went into effect on Sept. 1.
“The serious risk of irreparable harm to public safety and the possibility of regulatory chaos necessitates an immediate appeal,” reads James’ motion. “As the data confirm, more guns carried in more places by more people result in more crime, violence, and homicide.”
According to James, state and local officials have spent significant resources implementing the new law, “only to have the Order sow confusion among the public, licensing officials, and law enforcement.”
Last Thursday, U.S. District Judge Glenn Suddaby struck down key elements of the state's hurried attempt to rewrite its handgun laws after the old ones were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in June.
The state can't ban people from carrying guns in New York City's subway system or Times Square, the judge ruled, though he said it did have a right to exclude guns from certain other locations, including schools.
Several of the state's new licensing rules went too far, he wrote, including one that required applicants to be of “good moral character,” and another that made applicants turn over information about their social media accounts.
The end result was a licensing scheme that prohibited people from carrying a handgun for self-defense unless the applicant could persuade licensing officials that they wouldn't use it to hurt themselves or others, the judge wrote.
“Simply stated, instead of moving toward becoming a shall-issue jurisdiction, New York State has further entrenched itself as a shall-not-issue jurisdiction. And, by doing so, it has further reduced a first-class constitutional right to bear arms in public for self defense ... into a mere request,” wrote Suddaby, who sits in Syracuse.
James's office filed an appeal hours after the ruling, saying in a statement, “While the decision preserves portions of the law, we believe the entire law must be preserved as enacted.”
Legislators 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 high court struck down the state’s longstanding requirement that people demonstrate an unusual threat to their safety to qualify for such a license.
The new law broadly expanded who could get a handgun license, but it increased training requirements for applicants and required them to turn over more private information, including a list of everyone living in their home. The state also created a long list of places where firearms would be banned.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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