New York's Latest Gun Control Law Upheld by Federal Court

Federal Judge William Skretny (of the Western District of New York) upheld the vast majority of new state gun regulations passed as part of the 2013 SAFE Act against a constitutional challenge brought by the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, in a decision filed earlier this week.  Although courts in Upstate New York (federal as well as state) are generally considered more conservative than their downstate counterparts, this ruling shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone familiar with Justice Scalia's majority holding in D.C. v. Heller.  In a case concerning the District of Columbia's complete banning of possession of handguns within a home, the Supreme Court squarely recognized that the Second Amendment confers an individual right to "keep and bear arms".  However, "[l]ike most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited. ... nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms."  D.C. v. Heller, 128 S. Ct. 2783, 2816-17 (2008).  Later, in McDonald v. City of Chicago, Justice Alito and the Supreme Court majority applied the reasoning of Heller - and established incorporation doctrine - to strike down municipal (City / State) prohibitions on common handgun ownership.  But again, the Court made sure to point out that "[i]t is important to keep in mind that Heller, while striking down a law that prohibited the possession of handguns in the home, recognized that the right to keep and bear arms is not 'a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.'" McDonald v. City of Chicago, Ill., 130 S. Ct. 3020, 3047 (2010) (quoting in part Heller).

So with what are we left?  The Second Amendment prohibits the local, state and federal governments from outright banning of all - especially common - firearms that might be useful for protection of one's home.  However, state and federal governments maintain the power to impose reasonable regulations on firearm ownership in order to preserve order and public safety.  In the federal district court's opinion in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association Inc. v. Cuomo, New York State struck the right balance with the SAFE Act.