The New York affiliate of the National Rifle Association, joined by sportsmen's groups, firearms businesses and individual gun owners, has filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking an injunction to stop the state's new gun control law. The lawsuit claims the law violates New Yorkers' Second Amendment rights. The suit, filed in Buffalo, says the statute enacted January 15 infringes on the right of law-abiding citizens to keep "commonly possessed" guns in the home for family defense and other legal purposes.
The law, pushed through by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was the first in the nation and came a month after the December 14 Newtown, Connecticut school massacre. It tightens the definition of illegal "assault weapons" to include some popular and formerly legal semi-automatic rifles and requires registration of older guns.
The organization's president, Tom King, tells The Buffalo News that federal court was chosen because of its belief that constitutional rights are being violated, and because state courts are fairly liberal and "not the friendliest to the Second Amendment." King says he believes this will become a landmark case, and says it will eventually be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.
King did not say why the lawsuit was filed in Buffalo, except to say it was the advice of lawyers.