NYC handgun owners secure partial win in challenge to licensing laws

The judges did not rule on the constitutionality of the challenged restrictions but said the challenges should have survived the dismissal stage.MANHATTAN (CN) — Three handgun buyers persuaded the Second Circuit to reinstate some of their claims against New York City in a Tuesday ruling, reviving their challenge to city and state gun licensing requirements, including limits on how many guns a person can own or carry and the 90-day waiting period between gun purchases.In the lower court, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff tossed the case in December 2024, concluding that “none of the predominantly administrative regulations here operates to permanently deprive applicants of their right to own and carry firearms."The appellate panel said the lower court was right to dismiss certain claims for lack of jurisdiction, and to ditch the challenge to state licensing fees — the constitutionality of those fees was upheld in Kwong v. Bloomberg, as the city’s attorney noted during oral arguments.But the three-judge panel reinstated the challenges to rules limiting legal carry to one gun at any given time; requiring a 90-day gap between handgun purchases; and capping at two the number of handguns that a person can register on a carry license.The judges said those claims shouldn’t have been dismissed at the first step of the Bruen analysis, which addresses whether the regulated activities are within the “normal and ordinary meaning” of the Second Amendment.“Each of the activities at issue warrants an affirmative answer to that question. This is not to conclude that the challenged rules are necessarily unconstitutional. We hold simply that the constitutionality of these rules must be determined at the second step of the Bruen analysis, which requires the government to show that a challenged rule is “consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation,” U.S. Circuit Judge Reena Raggi wrote in the ruling.The judges go on to say, “We do not here predict whether or how the government might carry that burden … We hold only that neither plaintiffs’ facial nor as-applied challenge to a one-gun carry limitation should have been dismissed at Bruen step one.”U.S. Circuit Judge Debra Ann Livingston, another Bush appointee, and the Donald Trump-appointed U.S. Circuit Judge Michael Park joined Raggi in the ruling.A spokesperson for the city’s Law Department said the agency is evaluating its options.In the 2023 suit, Charles Mills, Craig Sotomayor and Braden Holliday argue that regulations like the waiting period and limit on possessing a backup concealed handgun are an “absolute bar — even if temporary — to their right to have and bear arms.”Holliday, a Bronx resident, separately challenged the city’s application and renewal fees, arguing that, at $428.50, they “grossly exceed” the $10 statutory cap imposed on every other jurisdiction in the state, except Nassau County on Long Island. The appeals court upheld the dismissal of that claim.During oral arguments in November 2025, plaintiff attorney Amy Bellantoni told the Second Circuit that the city’s administrative constraints on gun purchasing “go right to the very heart of the plain text of the Second Amendment, which is the right to keep and bear, to have and possess, and right to acquire is necessarily wrapped up within the right to possess, because without the ability to acquire, then you have no possession and no carriage, you have no defense.”Regarding the waiting period, Bellantoni said the 5 to 15 minutes it takes to run the buyers’ background check would be sufficient.Jeremy Shweder for the New York City Law Department argued that the lower court was right to dismiss the case because the gun owners lack standing or their claims are moot.“Plaintiffs essentially argue that they satisfy their burden at step one merely by saying that there exists a firearm regulation and then pointing to the Second Amendment,” he told the panel.“Today’s decision is an important win for New York City gun owners,” Bellantoni said in a statement. “The Second Circuit held that the City’s one-handgun carry limit, its 90-day waiting period between purchases, and its cap on handguns registered to a carry license all restrict conduct the Second Amendment protects.”Bellantoni said the plaintiffs “respectfully disagree with the rulings that kept the city’s licensing fees, purchase-authorization rule, and registration requirement from being tested under that same standard, and we intend to seek further review.”The Second Circuit remanded the case to the Southern District of New York for further proceedings.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads