The New York law that enables the seizure of guns from people who have not committed a crime is unconstitutional, a state Supreme Court judge has ruled.
This red flag law, or the Extreme Risk Protection Order law, lets individuals, including police officers, petition a court to allow the seizure of firearms from a person they believe poses a threat to themselves or others.
If a judge agrees, the judge can direct law enforcement to take guns from the person in question.
The law took effect in 2019 and has led to the issuance of more than 1,900 removal orders.
But the law is in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Second and Fourteenth Amendments because it does not “sufficiently protect a citizen’s rights,” New York State Supreme Court Judge Thomas Moran said in a ruling in late December 2022….