Fresh reports have revealed that a federal judge on Thursday has completely barred the state of New York, from going forward with the enforcement of some controversial part of a closely watched gun law which had openly banned firearms from churches or other places of worship.
The ruling had also marked the latest victory for some of the gun owners who were in a tug-of-war with the state of New York over its strict new statute, which as of Sept. 1 makes obtaining a license more difficult and prohibits firearms in a long list of “sensitive” public and private places.
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It had been revealed that places of worship had been listed among those places where guns were ccompletely forbidden.
Two church leaders sued last week, saying that such a constraint ran counter to the gun rights which had been spelt out in the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
U.S. District Judge John Sinatra agreed in a 40-page written ruling, issuing a temporary restraining order against the state of New York from carrying out the law while the court fight proceeds.
Sinatra had also cited a landmark United States Supreme Court decision in June that struck down New York’s previous law, which had completely barred individuals from carrying a handgun in public without proof of special circumstances. The top court had also found that the statute, enacted in 1913, violated the Second Amendment.
New York legislators quickly passed new rules on gun ownership which Sinatra, in his ruling, called “even more restrictive” than the law struck down by the Supreme Court.
“The nation’s history does not countenance such an incursion into the right to keep and bear arms across all places of worship across the state,” Sinatra wrote. “The right to self-defense is no less important and no less recognized at these places.”
The judge added that, based on the Supreme Court’s ruling earlier this year, the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on the merits of their lawsuit.
