ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — Governor Kathy Hochul said on Friday she is working with the attorney general to appeal the recent court ruling, placing temporary restrictions on gun laws.
The new gun laws were introduced on Sept 1, but a federal judge out of Syracuse said some of them went too far.
For example, the requirement for applicants to turn over info from their social media accounts, and the requirements for no-more conceal carry in certain places.
The lawsuit was brought about by six gun owners from upstate New York who claim the law infringes on their constitutional rights.
“We might end up in the Supreme Court again, because the issue is, how much can the State of New York limit some individuals constitutional rights?” said Don Chesworth with Tully Rinckey PLLC.
He said a lot of the back and forth, is about safety versus personal privacy. For example, the requirements to turn over social media info.
“I think the legislation is extremely broad and I think it was an attempt, in many ways, to undo what the Supreme Court said in its decision back in June,” he said.
“When the Supreme Court in June struck this down, I knew that I had to act quickly,” said Hochul. “Come up with common sense legislation, we figured there would be some challenges.”
Steve Lamarco of Victor Community Church, is one of several pastors taking action in the form of another lawsuit, challenging the state’s “sensitive areas” where guns are no longer allowed.
He said it’s about letting people have the choice to be armed in their space or not — especially with recent tragedies occurring nationwide.
“The ability to reasonably defend,” he said. “Were there to be something significant on a church campus like we’ve seen in our country, it’s kind of like an insurance policy, something you should have in place but something you should never need.”
The governor said her goal with these laws — is simply to protect.
“We had a law in the books for 108 years, where the governor of the state could protect her citizens, from letting just anyone have a conceal carry,” she said. “The Supreme Court said we could identify sensitive places, one of them has to be a church.”
Now with this particular restraining order, the judge left the ability to restrict guns in church, except for situations where someone is a hired security guard.
