GunsJudge upholds New York gun restrictions -- except 7-round per magazine limit
A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that New York’s strict new gun laws, including an expanded ban on assault weapons, were constitutional. He struck down, though, a provision prohibiting gun owners from loading more than seven rounds into a magazine. The 54-page ruling by William M. Skretny of Federal District Court in Buffalo should be considered a victory for gun control advocates who saw gun control measures on the federal level stall. Judge Skretny, writing that “whether regulating firearms is wise or warranted is not a judicial question; it is a political one,” said that expanded bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines were legally sound because they served to “further the state’s important interest in public safety.”
Judge rules permitting the use of magazines holding more than seven rounds // Source: commons.wikimedia.org
A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that New York’s strict new gun laws, including an expanded ban on assault weapons, were constitutional. He struck down, though, a provision prohibiting gun owners to load more than seven rounds into a magazine.
The ruling by William M. Skretny of Federal District Court in Buffalo should be considered a victory for gun control advocates who saw gun control measures on the federal level stall.
Judge Skretny wrote that expanded bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines were legally sound because they served to “further the state’s important interest in public safety.”
Gun laws passed in New York in January 2013 are among the strictest in the country ( see “New York to make state’s strict gun laws even stricter,” HSNW, 14 January 2013). The New York Times reports that Governor Andrew Cuomo pushed for the state to be the first to impose strict gun measures in the wake of the December 2012 mass school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.
In a 54-page ruling, Judge Skretny struck down the portion of the law which prohibited gun owners from loading more than seven rounds into a magazine. He called the limit “an arbitrary restriction” that violated the Second Amendment.
Saying, however, that “whether regulating firearms is wise or warranted is not a judicial question; it is a political one,” he found that Cuomo and lawmakers had acted within their bounds when they drafted the gun laws, and specifically cited the Bushmaster rifle and 30-round magazine used in the Newtown shooting.
“Of course, this is only one incident,” Judge Skretny wrote. “But it is nonetheless illustrative. Studies and data support New York’s view that assault weapons are often used to devastating effect in mass shootings.”
He wrote that the gun law “applies only to a subset of firearms with characteristics New York State has determined to be particularly dangerous and unnecessary for self-defense; it does not totally disarm New York’s citizens; and it does not meaningfully jeopardize their right to self-defense.”
Proponents of gun control welcomed Judge Skretny’s ruling, saying it confirmed their position that the government had the right to pass strict controls on firearms.
“A lot of states can take courage and take heart from this ruling, and maybe even Congress will take notice,” said Leah Gunn Barrett, the executive director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence. “The Second Amendment does not preclude reasonable regulation. It doesn’t mean you can have guns that are extremely dangerous, like assault weapons.”
Thomas King, the president of the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, which was among the lawsuit’s plaintiffs, said opponents of the law would appeal Judge Skretny’s ruling.
“Right from Day 1, I’ve been telling people that this is the first step,” he said. “This is going to the Supreme Court.”
The Times notes that the limit on seven rounds per magazine had run into problems before Tuesday’s ruling.
In March, in response to complaints that 7-round magazines were not available for sale, Cuomo and leaders of the State Legislature reached an agreement to modify that portion of the law so that 10-round magazines could still be bought.
They did keep the seven-round limit in effect, however, which means that that gun owners would still be forbidden to load more than seven rounds into a 10-round magazine, except at gun ranges, where they could load the full magazine.
The plaintiffs argued in court filings that the 7-round limit undermined the ability of New York residents to defend themselves. The state attorney general’s office said in response that there was no evidence to support “fantastical scenarios involving multiple home invaders” that would necessitate a firearm loaded with more than seven rounds.
Judge Skretny sided with the gun owners, though, writing that the restriction could wind up “pitting the criminal with a fully-loaded magazine against the law-abiding citizen limited to seven rounds.”
