NEW YORK CITY – The U.S.Court of Appeals is hearing oral arguments today from attorney James Ostrowski challenging the state’s pistol permit requirements.
The challenge contends the state pistol permit requirement is arbitrary and unconstitutional. The challenge is also supported by 2AWNY.COM Civil Rights Advocate Steve Felano. If the court agrees with Ostrowski, the challenge could overturn the state’s pistol permit laws.
Officially known as Libertarian Party of Erie County v. Cuomo, the case is one step away from U.S. Supreme Court review. This case seeks to nullify New York State’s pistol permit requirement based on the following:
The argument is that the pistol permit law is unconstitutional because it violates the Second and 14th Amendments. The Second Amendment states that “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” The Heller case in the Supreme Court ruled this amendment is an individual right, not a collective right.
The 14th Amendment states, in part, “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
This, Ostrowski argues, is violated in that the pistol permit requires applicants to bear the burden of the “overly subjective nature of “good moral character,” “good cause,” and “proper cause” requirements.”
“In bold defiance of the anti-liberty agenda manufactured and force-fed to New Yorkers by the far-left autocrats controlling the entirety of state government, a Second Amendment civil rights renaissance is growing across Western New York, and the state as a whole,” Felano said in a released statement. “This is evidenced by the fact that, in the first two months of 2019 alone, all 17 Western New York district attorneys reached a unanimous decision that they WILL NOT prosecute the unconstitutional SAFE Act seven-round capacity limit provision. Additionally, within the same period, Wyoming County and the Grand Island Town Council both passed resolutions voicing strong opposition to current and future New York gun control imperial edicts. Finally, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. City of New York, N. Y., setting the stage for an expansion of individuals’ Second Amendment civil rights outside the home. Each of these positive events coalesce to set the stage for the eventual overturn of the SAFE Act and New York States’ arbitrary pistol permitting regime, both on constitutional grounds.”
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