Judge Issues Temporary Restraining Order on New York's Ban on Firearms in Shuls

M.C. Millman

In response to a lawsuit brought by two pastors and two institutional plaintiffs against New York State's law banning firearms from houses of worship, District Court Judge John L. Sinatra issued a temporary restraining order against the law on Thursday, October 20.

The lawsuit was filed on October 13 by Reverend Dr. Jimmie Hardawy, Jr. and Bishop Larry A. Boyd, together with the Firearms Policy Coalition, Inc and the Second Amendment Foundation, with the goal of preventing the enforcement of New York's new law that makes it a felony to carry firearms at all place of worship and religious observation,

The pastors expressed that as "leaders of their churches, they would be authorized to carry on church premises to keep the peace." They also expressed the "wish to exercise their fundamental, individual right to bear arms in public for self-defense by carrying concealed firearms on church property in case of confrontation to both themselves and their congregants."

"We completely agree with Judge Sinatra's extremely well-reasoned decision," Ameer Benno, Esq. from Benno & Associates P.C., the law firm representing the NYS Jewish Gun Club lawsuit, shared with Rockland Daily. "The judge dissected the State's arguments in support of the law and determined those arguments were meritless. The most important takeaway from today is that there is no historical tradition in our nation of banning guns in places of worship, and therefore that the State law blatantly violates the Constitution."

"Irrespective of the United States Supreme Court decision, it is Religious Observance that has become criminal in New York State," adds Cory Morris, Esq. from The Law Offices of Cory H. Morris also representing the NYS Jewish Gun Club in its ongoing lawsuit. "There is no corollary in American history to making such religious observation a felony."

In his forty-page ruling, District Court Judge John L. Sinatra ordered the State of  New York to immediately cease enforcing its law against firearms in houses of worship until the plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction is decided.