In layman’s terms: NY cannot prohibit residents in public housing from owning firearms, transporting or using firearms in self-defense.
New York State was told on Tuesday that they can’t infringe on residents’ Second Amendment rights just because they live in public housing.
SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb stated:
This is not the first time SAF has successfully challenged a gun ban in a public housing authority facility. Whenever we are alerted to this sort of thing, we are prepared to challenge it. Bringing these cases simply fulfills our effort to win firearms freedom one lawsuit at a time.
In a case backed by the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and three private citizens, Robert Hunter, Elmer Irwin, and Doug Merrin, the judge ruled in favor of the Second Amendment and the plaintiffs. The case, known as Hunter v. Cortland Housing Authority, saw a judge in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York issue a permanent injunction against Cortland County, New York’s ban on the possession of firearms in its public housing.
However, the decision noted that:
…tenants and non-tenants are and shall continue to be prohibited from displaying firearms outside resident units, other than for transportation of firearms and for defense of self or others, and doing so by a resident shall constitute a Lease violation, except for the purposes of transporting firearms to and from their residences, self-defense, and/or defense of others in accordance with applicable law.
The suit also addressed a First Amendment infringement in which the court acknowledged wrongdoing by the CHA (Cortland Housing Authority) for violating the First Amendment and protected speech when it deleted and censored posts regarding the Firearms Ban made by Plaintiff Robert Hunter on CHA’s Facebook page.
The court order included five stipulations:
- The CHA can no longer prohibit tenants from owning, possessing, transporting, or using firearms for lawful purposes
- The CHA must amend its lease to remove the Firearms Ban
- The CHA must permit tenants to own and possess firearms within their residential units, to engage in lawful self-defense and defense of others in the common areas on CHA property and in their residential units, and to lawfully transport firearms through the common areas on CHA property
- The CHA shall ensure that the CHA Lease, and any future changes, edits, iterations, or versions, comply with the Second Amendment in all respects and do not violate the Second Amendment in any respect
- The CHA is restrained from prohibiting or restricting any person’s access to any of CHA’s social media pages or message forums, including but not limited to CHA’s Facebook page, and is also restrained from censoring or deleting any person’s comments, expressions, ideas, likes, messages, opinions, or posts on any of CHA’s social media pages or message forums
The judge also ordered defendants, CHA and it’s Executive Director, to pay the plaintiff’s attorney fees in the amount of $150,000.
SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut observed:
At some point, it should become abundantly clear to various public housing authorities that gun bans are not allowed. Residents do not leave their constitutional rights at the entrance, as each of our victories over the years have affirmed.
New York can’t run their state financially solvent but they railroaded Trump into a kangaroo court claiming he couldn’t run a business “Pot Calling the Kettle Black.”
Leave the Second Amendment alone, NYC