A coalition of gun rights groups sued New York officials over a new state law that would ban Glocks and similar popular pistols, as the Supreme Court is set to hear a case on sweeping bans of popular semiautomatic rifles in the coming months.
The lawsuit, filed by the National Rifle Association, Second Amendment Foundation, Firearms Policy Coalition, and the Firing Pin LLC, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York claims the ban, signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) in May but not set to go into effect until May 2027, violates key Supreme Court precedent that affirms the broad right to carry firearms, including popular handguns.
Recommended Stories
“Glock and Glock-style pistols, themselves, are not relevantly different from any other ordinary semiautomatic handgun,” the lawsuit said. “That is true even though they may be illegally modified. What is more, these pistols are in common use; indeed, they are among the most popular firearms in the nation. Yet if the Act is enforced, ordinary New Yorkers will be relegated to a shrinking secondary market made up of only those pistols possessed before the law’s effective date.”
“That is a handgun ban. The fact that the ban targets only one category of popular handguns does not make it constitutional,” the lawsuit continued.
The gun rights groups claim that the law violates the Supreme Court’s 2008 ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller, which upheld the right for citizens to own handguns for self-protection, and they urged a federal judge to strike the ban down as violating the Second Amendment.
“Anti-gun governors like Kathy Hochul have been put on notice,” NRA-Instutute for Legislative Action Executive Director John Commerford said in a statement. “The NRA is taking aggressive legal action nationwide to defend the rights of law-abiding Americans. Hochul’s Glock ban targets the most popular handguns in the country and seeks to punish honest citizens simply for wanting to protect themselves and their families. The real problem in New York isn’t lawful gun owners—it’s the state’s failure to hold violent criminals accountable.”
Adam Kraut, executive director of the Second Amendment Foundation, noted similar Glock bans implemented in other states, such as California, but also singled out how New York has been on the wrong side of a major Supreme Court Second Amendment case this decade.
“And let’s not forget that it was also New York that was already smacked down by the Supreme Court for infringing on the right to carry in [New York State Rifle & Pistol Association] v. Bruen,” Kraut said. “Now these lawmakers seem intent to be reminded that [the Supreme Court] has also already been clear that handguns, the ‘quintessential’ arm of choice for self-defense, are protected under the Second Amendment.”
“No more can New York ban one of the most popular brand and type of handguns in the country than can it ban all handguns outright,” he added.
While the lawsuit filed this week deals with bans on popular handguns, a pair of lawsuits dealing with bans on some semiautomatic rifles is set to be heard by the Supreme Court in its upcoming term.
‘ASSAULT WEAPONS’ BANS ARE ON THEIR WAY TO THE SUPREME COURT
The Supreme Court will hear the consolidated case of Viramontes v. Cook County and Grant v. Higgins, which deals with state “assault weapons” bans in Cook County, Illinois, and Connecticut, respectively. While the case is dealing with laws for those two jurisdictions, the eventual ruling is expected to have sweeping implications in other places that have enacted similar sweeping bans of popular semiautomatic rifles, such as the AR-15.
Gun rights advocates are optimistic the Supreme Court could deliver another major victory for them by ruling the bans are unconstitutional. The high court has yet to schedule oral arguments in the assault weapons case, but it could hear them as soon as December or early 2027.
