A New York judge has ordered the state of New York to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to the National Rifle Association after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the gun advocacy group regarding open carry of firearms.
The NRA was a party to the case of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, a battle over a state law requiring applicants for unrestricted concealed-carry licenses in New York to demonstrate a special need for self-defense. The simple desire for personal protection or protection of one’s property was reportedly not reason enough.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that the law “violated the Fourteenth Amendment by preventing law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms in public for self-defense,” Oyez.org reported.
As a result, New York was ordered to pay $446,700.82 in legal fees to the NRA, according to Fox News.
“The NRA regards the $447K award in the NYSRPA V. Bruen case as a pivotal victory, a symbol that justice is definitively on our side,” NRA’s director of the Office of Litigation Counsel, Michael Jean, told Fox News.
“This triumph in Bruen has fortified the Second Amendment in an unprecedented manner, and we continue our unrelenting fight to uphold our rights and challenge those who endeavor to infringe upon them,” he added.
New York legislators subsequently passed the Concealed Carry Improvement Act, which includes a ban on carrying a gun in “sensitive locations,” including schools, bars, medical facilities, stadiums, government buildings, and houses of worship. The latter was recently changed, according to the Buffalo News, who noted that pastors and “persons responsible for security” are now allowed to carry firearms in houses of worship.
The act also requires background checks on all ammunition purchases, along with new safety requirements for retailers. This law was appealed in January 2023 but still went into effect.
“We are challenging the ability of the state of New York to target dealers in firearms in the lawful stream of commerce, to put them out of business, which is what the new laws will do,” said Paloma Capanna, lead attorney for the New York gun retailers. “So it really was unfortunate to see that we couldn’t get any emergency temporary injunction against those laws.”
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!