NY’s Training Requirement for Concealed-Carry License Is Constitutional, Appeals Court States

A resident’s suit claimed that the requirement infringed on his rights, but a court opinion said the Supreme Court has found training rules constitutional.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announces new concealed-carry regulations at a press conference in New York City on Aug. 31, 2022. Ed Jones/ AFP via Getty Images

New York’s requirement of at least 18 hours of training to obtain a concealed-carry license is not unconstitutional, according to an unpublished and unsigned opinion from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second District dated Nov. 21.

The opinion is the latest development in a series of legal fights over New York’s Concealed Carry Improvement Act (CCIA), which was signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Aug. 31, 2022.

According to the opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court has previously found that the Constitution allows states to require training as part of a licensing plan.

“We explained that, in both District of Columbia v. Heller, and [New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v.] Bruen, the Supreme Court has included firearm training requirements as part of presumptively constitutional shall-issue licensing regimes,” the opinion reads.

In this latest fight, New York City resident Jonathan Corbett sued the state and city, claiming that the CCIA was unconstitutional. In particular, he claimed that the training requirement was time-consuming and burdensome to the point of infringing on his Second Amendment rights.

However, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that he lacked standing to sue the state but could sue the city over the training requirement.

Hochul did not respond to requests for comment. After a previous court decision in November 2022, she vowed to continue defending New York’s strict gun regulations.

“Challenges to New York’s gun laws undermine public safety and increase the presence of guns in our communities. We will continue to fiercely defend the constitutionality of our laws and protect New Yorkers from these baseless attacks,” she said at that time.

Gun rights advocates criticized the latest opinion as narrow and doomed to fail if taken to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Mark Smith, a constitutional attorney and gun rights advocate, said the New York courts are “notoriously anti-Second Amendment.” He added that the opinion relies on one footnote in the Bruen decision while ignoring other, more obvious constitutional issues, such as “unduly expensive or time-consuming” licensing requirements.

New York firearms instructor Pete Donahoo teaches a class in Peekskill, N.Y., in November 2023. Michael Clements/The Epoch Times

“Ultimately, the Supreme Court will have to decide whether training requirements for licensees are constitutional,” Smith wrote in a message to The Epoch Times.

Aidan Johnston, federal affairs director for Gun Owners of America, agreed. Pointing out that the Bruen decision requires a law to comply with the plain text of the amendment, Johnston said there is no requirement or allowance for licensing.

Johnston stated that the phrase “shall not be infringed” prohibits government regulation.

“For whatever reason, New York and Gov. Hochul think they are above the Constitution,” he wrote in a message to The Epoch Times.

In the June 2022 Bruen decision, the Supreme Court held that Second Amendment regulations must align with constitutional text and history to be valid. Almost immediately, Hochul called the Legislature into session to pass the CCIA.

In addition to increasing the training requirements, the law expanded the number of places where concealed carry was prohibited, instituted a “good character” provision, and required license applicants to allow officials to review their social media accounts.

Those provisions were struck down in subsequent lawsuits.