A federal appeals court has upheld part of New York’s gun safety law that requires background checks for ammunition sales. The ruling affirmed a lower court’s decision, denying the challenge to the Concealed Carry Improvement Act from gun rights advocate plaintiffs. The system checks whether someone trying to buy a weapon is a convicted felon, a fugitive from justice, addicted to or using a controlled substance, committed to a mental institution, or convicted for misdemeanor domestic violence. The court rejected the request for an injunction, so the case returns to the lower court.
ALBANY, N.Y. (NEXSTAR) — A federal appeals court upheld part of New York’s gun safety law that requires background checks for ammunition sales on Wednesday. The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a lower court’s decision, denying the challenge to the Concealed Carry Improvement Act from gun rights advocates, including two Republican state legislators.
Get the latest news, weather, sports and entertainment delivered right to your inbox!
“New York State Firearms Association v. James” concerned aspects of the CCIA that took effect in September 2023 mandating that an ammunition sale has to include:
A background check on the buyer;
A $2.50 fee per background check; and
The seller registering with the Superintendent of the New York State Police or using a licensed intermediary.
The system checks whether someone trying to buy a weapon is a convicted felon, a fugitive from justice, addicted to or using a controlled substance, committed to a mental institution, or convicted for misdemeanor domestic violence. State Police have to build a database of licenses and records for ammunition sales. If the background check shows disqualifying records, the transaction gets delayed, and State Police have to review the application.
New York defends gun control after GOP letter to DOJ
If denied, the buyer can formally appeal to the Office of the New York State Attorney General. A seller who doesn’t register or use a licensed intermediary faces a $1,000 fine for the first offense and a class A misdemeanor charge for a second offense.
These ammunition background check provisions are currently in effect, although the Second Circuit decision doesn’t concern whether the CCIA is constitutional, so it could still be struck down in the future. The court rejected the request for an injunction, so the case returns to the lower court. The plaintiffs can still submit new evidence.
Stefanik urges Treasury to probe CAIR’s alleged Hamas links
The plaintiffs—including State Senator George Borrello and Assemblymember David DiPietro—sued Steven James, Superintendent of the New York State Police, arguing that the ammunition provisions violate the Second Amendment, keeping them from buying ammunition because of fees, delays, and a broken state system. The three-judge panel concluded that the plaintiffs failed to prove how the law “meaningfully constrain[s] their ability to ‘keep’ or ‘bear’ arms.”
Borrello strongly disagreed with the ruling, calling it a “clear violation of the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.” The senator argued that CCIA doesn’t improve safety, just “places unnecessary burdens on responsible gun owners who follow the law.” He argued that law-abiding New Yorkers in his district cross the border into Pennsylvania to buy ammo rather than follow the CCIA, meaning “fewer sales for local, taxpaying small businesses.”
Judge disarms NY Concealed Carry Improvement Act
DiPietro also expressed disappointment and agreed that the CCIA blatantly infringes on the rights of innocent New Yorkers. He argued that the state’s liberal elite are hypocrites who give “violent criminals a longer leash with cashless bail and soft-on-crime policies” while “strangling responsible gun owners with endless bureaucratic hurdles and fees.” The assemblymember claimed the law represents “a calculated scheme to drive gun store owners out of business, erode our freedoms bit by bit, and achieve through backdoor regulations what they can’t do outright: ban guns altogether.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James released a statement after the ruling celebrating her successful defense “despite repeated attempts to undermine this commonsense law.” She added, “Every New Yorker deserves to feel safe in their community and my office will continue to defend our laws and protect public safety.”
Report: New York’s power grid strained by old infrastructure, demand
James’s office previously defended the law in May 2024 when the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York denied the plaintiffs’ motion for an injunction, finding that they “had not shown any likelihood of success on the merits.”
Governor Kathy Hochul signed the CCIA into law in July 2022 in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in “New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen,” which blocked a previous state requirement that concealed carry applicants prove proper cause or a special need to be armed in public. The Second Circuit applied the two-step framework for gun control that SCOTUS created in Bruen. Laws that regulate related activity like buying or maintaining ammo would only be protected if they restrict the core right of possessing or carrying weapons.
Federal court blocks ban on guns at parks, approves other CCIA regulations
The plaintiffs couldn’t show that the CCIA affects individual conduct covered by the plain text of the Second Amendment, which is the right to “keep” and “bear” arms. The court ruled that short delays in the process doesn’t violate the Second Amendment. Plaintiff Aaron Dorr couldn’t complete a background check on September 14, 2023, because the database system was down. But the court determined that his modest wait was a day at most, which “does not come close to the ‘lengthy’ delays” that would meaningfully constrain the right to keep or bear arms.
The $2.50 fee to the State Police covers administrative costs of the background check, which the plaintiffs argued that retailers would pass on to consumers. The appeals court found that because the law imposes the fee on the seller, their personal choice of passing it onto the buyer can’t be blamed on the state government. And under the law, the fee must be less than the actual cost of the background check. According to the court, it’s not “exorbitant or prohibitively expensive,” so doesn’t represent a meaningful restriction.
New York to appeal after judge OKs radioactive Indian Point water in the Hudson
All ammunition sellers have to register with the State Police Superintendent unless they’re already licensed firearm dealers. The court found no evidence that the plaintiffs lacked “easy access to licensed or registered ammunition sellers,” and that the Second Amendment doesn’t prohibit registrations for sellers.
The legal arm of Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, Everytown Law, had a representative speak in the case. Janet Carter, Managing Director of Second Amendment Litigation at Everytown Law, welcomed the Second Circuit’s decision, calling background checks for ammunition sales “a common sense public safety measure, and they are constitutional.”
SCOTUS vacates NY Circuit Court gun control ruling
A second step of the Bruen framework would’ve required the government to prove that gun laws align with historical, traditional firearm regulations—particularly those existing before 1868. The district court had already concluded that the CCIA would likely pass that test. But the appeals court skipped this step anyway, since the law hadn’t met that meaningful constraint standard.
President Donald Trump appointed all three judges on the Second Circuit panel that unanimously upheld the CCIA: Judges Joseph Bianco, Michael Park, and William Nardini. Their ruling contradicted a recent decision from a different federal appeals court, the Ninth Circuit, which had struck down a similar background check law in California.
Use it or lose it: Summer EBT food benefits expiring Friday
The Second Circuit pointed out differences between the state laws, like New York not requiring the customer to pay the fee or having a time limit to completing the purchase after clearing a background check. They also disagreed with the Ninth Circuit’s analysis, having “flatly contradicted by our Circuit’s precedents, our sister courts’ precedents, and, indeed, the Ninth Circuit’s own precedents.”
While the Wednesday ruling upheld the background check and fee for ammo sales, the Second Circuit has struck down other parts of the CCIA. They blocked the ban on carrying firearms in public parks and zoos, finding no historical precedent, and approved an injunction on a provision that broadly banned carrying on private property that is open to the public.
NYC storm cancels Columbus Day parade amid Indigenous Peoples Day debate
Take a look at the ruling below: