New York’s gun background checks survive another legal challenge

(The Center Square) — New York’s tough new gun control laws go into effect on Wednesday after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor rejected an 11th-hour appeal to block the state’s new background check system.

In a paperless order issued Tuesday, Sotomayor rejected a lawsuit filed by gun dealers seeking to block the state’s new firearm law regulations requiring background checks for private firearms and ammunition sales from going into effect. Per the high court’s tradition, the single justice didn’t comment on the rejection.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat who pushed the new restrictions to the state Legislature last year, praised the ruling, saying it allows the restrictions “to move full speed ahead, and the law requiring periodic onsite inspections of firearms dealers remains intact.”

The request for an emergency order was filed by a pair of New York gun shop owners who argued that the new background requirements would impact their business and deprive lawful gun owners of their Second Amendment rights.

Under the new rules, firearm buyers will be required to pay background check fees — $2.50 for the sale of ammunition and $9 for guns — to help fund the new background checks program overseen by the New York State Police Department.

The high court’s rejection is the latest legal twist in challenges to New York’s gun control law, signed by Hochul in July 2022, which sought to close “loopholes” in private gun sales by tightening firearm licensing and sales rules to make it harder to purchase a gun. It also defined private properties as “restricted” areas where carrying a gun is illegal.

The changes were approved in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in the N.Y. State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen case, which struck down a New York law requiring applicants to show “proper cause” to get a permit to carry a firearm.

The ruling prompted New York and other Democrat-led states to tighten their gun laws to further restrict firearm carrying, which spurred other legal challenges from Second Amendment groups.

“In sum, the challenged mandates are preempted by federal law, or unconstitutional under the Second, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, and are unconstitutional under ‘to keep’ of “to keep and bear arms” of the Second Amendment,” lawyers for the plaintiffs wrote in a legal brief.

The plaintiffs had also argued that the state isn’t equipped to take over the responsibility of conducting online background checks on gun sales from the existing federal system.

“There’s no eyes-on proof the system exists and is operational,” the plaintiff’s lawyers wrote. “There are no training sessions for dealers. And there’s not even a printed user guide to the systems platform.”

In response to Sotomayor’s rejection, the plaintiffs on Tuesday filed another emergency appeal with a “supplemental brief” to Justice Clarence Thomas, who voted with the court’s conservative majority in last year’s 6-3 decision striking down New York’s concealed carry law. It isn’t clear whether Thomas will consider the request.