This Painting...
"Pilgrims Going To Church" by George Henry Boughton
...adorned the walls of every classroom in the Boston Public School where I went to K through 4 back in the 1950's.
Posted on 12/08/2023 6:37:43 PM PST by SeekAndFind
An appeals court panel has ruled against a New York law that prohibits the carrying of firearms into houses of worship, upholding a lower court decision that blocked the law from taking effect.
On Friday, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit released a 261-page opinion regarding four cases centered on multiple challenges to New York’s Concealed Carry Improvement Act.
Regarding the Act’s provision banning concealed carry in places of worship, the panel ruled that “Plaintiffs have sufficiently alleged that the CCIA burdens their sincerely held religious practice.”
“CCIA is not neutral because it allows the owners of many forms of private property, including many types of retail businesses open to the public, to decide for themselves whether to allow firearms on the premises while denying the same autonomy to places of worship,” stated the ruling.
“By adopting a law that applies differently as to places of worship (alongside the other enumerated sensitive places) than to most other privately owned businesses and properties, the CCIA is, on its face, neither neutral nor generally applicable.”
The panel opinion went on to say that “the State has not demonstrated that allowing church leaders to regulate their congregants’ firearms is more dangerous than allowing other property owners to do the same.”
“It hard to see how the law advances the interests of religious organizations, as a whole, by denying them agency to choose for themselves whether to permit firearms,” the appeals court added.
In July of last year, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the Concealed Carry Improvement Act into law, which, among other things, required people seeking a concealed carry license to be of “good moral character” and made it a crime to conceal carry in “sensitive locations,” such as church sanctuaries.
Hochul said in a press release at the time that she was “taking swift and bold action to protect New Yorkers” and was “proud to sign this landmark legislative package that will strengthen our gun laws and bolster restrictions on concealed carry weapons.”
New York Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins was quoted in the press release as saying, “we are stepping up to protect New York from being easily flooded with concealed weapons and keeping firearms out of the wrong hands.”
“These measures, in addition to the previous anti-gun violence legislation we passed, are vital in a time when there are more guns than people in America,” stated Stewart-Cousins.
His Tabernacle Family Church and Pastor Micheal Spencer filed suit against New York over the law back in November 2022, being represented by the law firm the First Liberty Institute.
In late December last year, Judge John L. Sinatra Jr. of the Western District of New York, a Trump appointee, ruled against the state, concluding that the Act violated the U.S. Constitution.
“Plaintiffs have demonstrated that the State permits countless other private actors hosting secular activities to do what a house of worship may not. The houses of worship exclusion is not a neutral law of general applicability,” he wrote.
Related article:
“Second Circuit Upholds Injunction on Portions of New York Carry Law”
I hate New York.
From the article at the link I posted above from Bearingarms.com
“Though the state is the recipient of this deferential treatment throughout the court’s opinion, there are definitely some wins in today’s decision, most notably the panel’s conclusion that New York’s default ban on carrying on private property isn’t likely to pass constitutional muster. And as the Firearms Policy Coalition pointed out, today’s decision is based on a request for injunctive relief, and the constitutionality of the challenged portions of the Concealed Carry Improvement Act have yet to be ultimately decided.
“
This attempted intrusion of the Feds into state realm and religion says everything we need to know about this stolen government warring on us as hard as they can while they can. As if the pendulum isn’t about to turn. Their arrogance while reveling in evil is astounding.
1) Five Card Stud with Dean Martin where Robert Mitchum opened his Bible and pulled out the gun to kill the bad guy.
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0062626/mediaviewer/rm2344517120
2) another one
https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/101bxir/this_bible_had_a_gun_incorporated_and_could_be/?rdt=48605
I take my gun everywhere except the airport. It’s in my concealed carry purse and nobody even knows it’s there unless I tell them. I refuse to be a sitting duck when I go out in public.
Utter stupidity of New York politicians. People going to church with guns are not gonna break out the guns over bible verse disagreements.
But it would be nice to have some guns handy when a violent assailant attacks AND THE COPS ARE NOT THERE.
Ping
+1
The Second Amendment protects the First.
I remember when a church CCTV caught on tape a guy who walked to the front of the church and started shooting. The camera was in the back of the sanctuary and you could see little old ladies immediately grab guns from their purses.
The issue is the state’s campaign to ghettoize Catholics, and now probably practicing Jews. Who is to be left defenseless if/when societal chaos stumbles in the door, and who not.
One would think they would learn their lesson. But no, they keep doing it over and over. Same with Illinois. That ban is going to be overturned
Our head usher carries concealed because he is so concerned with someone shooting up the church & no way to defend against/stop them (no designated security at all). He consulted with the county police who told him the church had to give permission for him to carry on their premises. He told the church if the answer was ‘no’, he would no longer be attending ... he’s still ushering, so the answer must have been ‘yes’.
Regards,
LT C Grossman’s “Sheepdog seminars “ speak of having a plan at churches.
Their plan to shoot us in our churches -like fish in a bucket- has failed. On to plan c or D.
The separation of church and state crowd caught a bad case of laryngitis.
EC
take my gun everywhere except the airport.... I refuse to be a sitting duck when I go out in public.
+++++++++++
You and I are of kindred minds, except you could have ended the last sentence after the word “duck”.
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