Gun makers lose appeal of New York law that could make them liable for
shootings
[July 11, 2025]
By LARRY NEUMEISTER
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York state law holding gun manufacturers
potentially liable when their weapons are used in deadly shootings was
upheld Thursday by a federal appeals court.
The ruling Thursday by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
Manhattan affirmed a decision by an Albany judge.
A three-judge appeals panel said the 2021 New York state law was not
unconstitutional or vague. The opinion written by Circuit Judge Eunice
C. Lee said a lawsuit seeking to stop the law's implementation did not
show that the law was “unenforceable in all its applications.”
The law requires the gun industry to create reasonable controls to
prevent unlawful possession, use, marketing or sale of their products in
New York and allows them to be sued for unlawful acts that create or
contribute to threats to public health or safety.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association of firearms
manufacturers that ships firearms into New York, had sued over the law,
saying it was pre-empted by the federal 2005 Protection of Lawful
Commerce in Arms Act, which blocks litigation that could destroy the
firearms industry.
In May 2022, Judge Mae A. D'Agostino threw out the lawsuit, rejecting
arguments that the law's language did not adequately explain what was
prohibited. She said the law closely tracked the language of New York's
general public nuisance law, which has been “good law since 1965.”
Lawyers for the gun manufacturers did not immediately respond to
requests for comment.
New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a release that the
decision was a “massive victory for public safety and the rule of law
and will help us continue to fight the scourge of gun violence to keep
our communities safe.”
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Eric Tirschwell, executive director of the nonprofit Everytown Law,
praised the ruling. He said the law creates “a new pathway for
victims and their families to hold bad actors in the gun industry
accountable for their role in fueling the epidemic of gun violence
that is ravaging communities across the Empire State.”
Everytown Law and the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence
were among gun violence protection groups that filed an amicus brief
in the case, arguing that the new law “simply does not create the
free-for-all” that gun makers predicted.
Circuit Judge Dennis Jacobs concurred in the ruling, despite some
reservations. He wrote that New York had “contrived a broad public
nuisance statute that applies solely to ‘gun industry members’ and
is enforceable by a mob of public and private actors.”
And he added: “The intent of Congress when it closes a door is not
for States to thus jimmy a window.”
Jacobs, citing a recent Supreme Court ruling, said he agrees with
the other two judges on the panel that the law could be applied
consistent with the federal law and the U.S. Constitution.
But he also wrote that the New York gun law is “nothing short of an
attempt to end-run” the federal law, noting that then-Gov. Andrew
Cuomo said when he signed it that it would “right the wrong” done by
the federal law.
“There is some legitimate reach to the law, which suffices for us to
affirm the dismissal of this facial challenge. Just how limited that
reach is must await future cases,” Jacobs said.
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