Oh yeah. It’s been a bad, bad few days for big gun control. Minnesota’s prohibition on 18-20-year-old young adults carrying was struck down as unconstitutional. Florida formally adopted Constitutional Carry – making 26 states “no permit required” states when it comes to carry. And now a judge in New York struck down the Empire State’s much-vaunted Red Flag Law. And he didn’t even cite the Bruen decision for doing so. Instead, he cited a total lack of an informed medical opinion in considering an order
No doubt Kathy Hochul (pictured above) is quite angry at the decision. Too darn bad. Here’s an excerpt…
Without the requirement of any input from a medical or mental health expert, the Court is required to make a determination of whether “the respondent is likely to engage in behavior that would result in serious harm to himself, herself, or others in…section 9.39 of the mental hygiene law.” Under Mental Hygiene Law, a person’s liberty rights cannot be curtailed unless a physician opines that a person is suffering from a condition “likely to result in serious harm.” Further, in order to extend any such curtailment of liberty beyond 48 hours, a second doctor’s opinion must be obtained and such opinion must be consistent with the first doctor’s opinion.
Absent from New York’s Red Flag Law is any provision whatsoever requiring even a single medical or mental health expert opinion providing a basis for the order to be issued. New York’s Red Flag Law, as currently written, lacks sufficient statutory guardrails to protect a citizen’s Second Amendment Constitutional right to bear arms…
“Second Amendment rights are no less fundamental than…Fourth Amendment rights (the right to liberty), and must be afforded the same level of due process and equal protection.” Accordingly, this Court joins the Monroe County Supreme Court in holding that, “under CPLR 63-a, in order to pass constitutional muster, the legislature must provide that a citizen be afforded procedural guarantees such as a physician’s determination that a respondent presents a condition ‘likely to result in serious harm,’ before a petitioner files for a [temporary extreme risk protection order] or [extreme risk protection order].
Since this standard is required to prevent a respondent from being deprived of fundamental rights under the Mental Hygiene Law, then anything less (as contained in 63-a) deprives a citizen of a fundamental right without due process of law.” This Court declares [New York’s Extreme Risk Protection Law] to be unconstitutional.
I wondered why my Walmart was out of Puffs and Kleenex today. Now I know why the run on tissues.
Even though this decision did not cite the Bruen decision as the primary reason for striking it down, I can assure you that Illinois’ Red Flag law as well as the laws related to stripping people of their 2nd Amendment rights for more conventional Orders of Protection are on the short list for us to tackle after this gun ban matter is resolved.
We warned JB Pritzker and the rest of the gun control jihadists in Illinois government: If you keep poking the bear, we’re going to take a wrecking ball to gun control schemes in this state. It’s not moving quickly, but we’re moving the pieces into place.
Y’all hear that? It’s the sound of liberal tears breaking when they hit the sidewalk, all over NY today. Imagine the sour face from Kathy Hochaloogie, possibly the only person who could have been a worse governor in NY than Granny Killer Cuomo.
This law was so egregious that they didn’t even have to break out the elephant gun known as Bruen. This means that NY can rush to rewrite their Red Flag law with newfound ‘protections’, only to have it immediately shredded under Bruen itself. Good times.
My thought? Hallelujah.
That and damn, she is one ugly person.