In the ongoing battle between Gun Owners of America (GOA) and the state of New York over the hastily passed Concealed Carry Improvement Act, GOA and lawful firearm owners recently had a sweet partial victory.
As a stipulation in the partial settlement filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York on March 30, the state officially consented to an injunction against the enforcement of portion of the law requiring applicants for a concealed carry license to submit a list of their former and current social media accounts from the past three years to confirm their “character and conduct.”
As some background, when the Supreme Court of the United States handed down the Bruen ruling in 2022, nullifying New York’s carry laws, the anti-gun state legislature set out to replace them. The social media requirement was one of the ill-conceived, hastily passed requirements state lawmakers passed in response to the SCOTUS loss.
Key elements within the settlement include the state has consented to the entry of a permanent injunction against their enforcement of the social media requirement, the Superintendent of the New York State Police is now explicitly required to ensure that the PPB-3 license application form does not include language requiring social media information, and the remainder of the ongoing litigation will continue to target other statutory provisions, including N.Y. Penal Law § 265.01-d and various “sensitive locations” enumerated in N.Y. Penal Law § 265.01-e where the public carry of firearms for self-defense in prohibited, such as public parks, zoos, and places licensed for alcohol consumption.
In a news release announcing the settlement, GOA said the lawsuit, Antonyuk v. James, represents a broader, ongoing constitutional challenge to New York’s aggressive and unconstitutional post-Bruen gun control regime. By forcing the state to abandon its invasive social media check, GOA and Gun Owners Foundation (GOF) have secured a crucial win for both the Second Amendment and the privacy rights of New Yorkers.
Erich Pratt, GOA senior vice president, said New York’s “Concealed Carry Improvement Act” is nothing more than a “smokescreen.”
“This law has never been about improving concealed carry for law-abiding citizens, but instead is a calculated effort to disarm as many New Yorkers as possible, Pratt said. “We will continue fighting this unconstitutional law in court, including New York’s onerous location restrictions.”
Speaking for GOF, Executive Vice President John Velleco said New York’s demand that applicants surrender three years of their private social media history was a “blatant invasion of privacy” and “massive government overreach.”
“Forcing the state to abandon this requirement is a victory not only for the Second Amendment, but for the First and Fourth Amendments as well,” Velleco said. “The government has absolutely no constitutional authority to rummage through a citizen’s digital life as a prerequisite for exercising their right to armed self-defense.”
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