2nd Circuit Court Upholds Some Portions Of New York’s Sensitive Places Gun Ban

A U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled that some of New York’s restrictive gun law that designates certain areas as “sensitive locations” can be allowed to stand.

A lower court in the case Frey v. New York, U.S. District Judge Nelson Stephen Roman plaintiffs’ request for an injunction in 2023. On September 19, a three-judge panel of the New York City-based 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s decision denying gun owners a preliminary injunction against parts of the state’s so-called “Concealed Carry Improvement Act” (CCIA), which was passed as a kneejerk reaction shortly after the Bruen ruling overturned their previous law.

Plaintiffs argued that CCIA wrongly designates huge amounts of public areas as “sensitive locations” where firearms are completely banned, leaving them defenseless against armed criminals who don’t follow such laws. They specifically challenged three provisions of the law—ban on carrying guns in Times Square, the New York City subway, and the Metro-North commuter rail system, the complete ban on open carry and the requirement to obtain a city permit to carry in New York City, along with the state permit.

Unfortunately, the three-judge panel ruled that New York’s restrictions fall within the country’s historical tradition of gun regulation, a priority handed down in the Bruen decision. Consequently, the court held, the provisions did not violate the Second Amendment rights of the plaintiffs.

“There is perhaps no public place more quintessentially crowded than Times Square,” the court ruling stated. “Extending approximately from 40th to 53rd Street, and from Sixth to Ninth Avenue in Manhattan, this block at the heart of Manhattan, known as the ‘Crossroads of the World,’ teems with ‘rivers of neon and seas of tourists.’ The Nasdaq Exchange and Broadway theaters, as well as hundreds of restaurants and stores are among those that call it home.”