New York may not keep guns out of childcare programs, public libraries, zoos, or mental health facilities, the court held.
A Thursday decision by a federal court in upstate New York is a case in point. In that case,
, U.S. District Judge Glenn Suddaby put on hold significant portions of a recently enacted New York law regulating guns in the aftermath of. Among other things, the new law replaced the old permit scheme with new or modified requirements for applicants, including an 18-hour training course, names of references, an in-person interview, a list of social media accounts, and proof of good moral character.
Or take the court’s treatment of the provision requiring an applicant to show “good moral character.” Anshouldn’t have to show anything, said the court. Rather, the state should have to disprove a presumption of good moral character, and that by a burden of proof the court itself fashioned. The result? A federal judge in Syracuse is, quite literally, re-writing New York’s laws.
The court’s excision of sensitive places is broad and deep. It cuts out literally dozens of enumerated locations from which the New York legislature sought to prohibit guns, including Times Square, establishments serving liquor, cannabis dispensaries, theaters, stadiums, amusement parks, libraries, playgrounds, childcare programs, places serving individuals with developmental disabilities, homeless and family shelters, domestic violence shelters, and more.