ALBANY — New York’s top court on Monday rejected the first challenge to the state’s concealed-weapons since it was rewritten.
The Court of Appeals upheld the state’s authority to impose restrictions on a regular civilian’s right to carry a concealed weapon, such as setting a minimum age or prohibiting gun possession by convicted felons.
In doing so, the court rejected a Bronx defendant’s claim that a landmark 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision known as “Bruen,” prevents New York State lawmakers from setting almost any licensing conditions that would limit 2nd Amendment rights.
The Court of Appeals said the Bruen decision meant states can’t force a concealed-weapons applicant to demonstrate “proper cause” for carrying a weapon but left open a state’s ability to impose some conditions to obtaining a license.
“We hold only that Bruen did not render the state’s entire gun licensing scheme unconstitutional because the ‘proper cause’ provision is severable” from other aspects of the state law, Judge Caitlin Halligan wrote for the court in Monday’s case, known as People v. Omar Johnson.
Though all seven Court of Appeals judges agreed with the outcome, three of them signed on to a “concurring” opinion in which they said they rejected Johnson’s appeal not because of a constitutional issue but simply because Johnson waived his right to challenge the statute when he accepted a plea bargain deal to receive a lighter sentence.
Vincent Bonventre, a professor at Albany Law School who studies the Court of Appeals, said it was the first case to reach the court since the Bruen decision.
He said whereas some might have thought the Bruen ruling would have severely impacted New York’s ability to limit concealed-weapons licenses, the ruling Monday, combined with more recent Supreme Court decisions, shows that “courts are being very cautious about invalidating gun restrictions.”
