U.S. District Judge John L. Sinatra, Jr., ruled against New York’s ban on body armor Wednesday, noting that it violates the Second Amendment.
New York Democrats passed the state’s body armor ban as part of their larger attempt to enact as many gun controls as possible following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Bruen (2022) decision.
Judge Sinatra weighed the body armor ban in light of Bruen, Heller (2008), McDonald (2010), and more, and found it to be in conflict with Second Amendment rights.
He wrote, “The Constitution requires that individuals be permitted to use arms–including body armor–for the core lawful purpose of self-defense. See, e.g.,
McDonald. … Nothing in the Nation’s history or traditions closes the door on that right by permitting a categorical ban on the purchase and sale of a specific type of arm.”
Sinatra added, “In sum, New York’s body armor ban violates ‘the constitutional right to keep and bear arms.’”
The case was heard in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York. The Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) was a plaintiff.
FPC president Brandon Combs commented on the win, saying, “FPC has already made history defeating bans on protected arms like semiautomatic rifles, and now we’re making history again by establishing that defensive body armor is protected by the Second Amendment.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. He enjoys reading Philosophy and novels by Jack Carr and Nelson DeMille. He is a lever action man in an AR-15 world. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
