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New York<\/a>\u00a0says its history of\u00a0racist<\/a>\u00a0laws that allowed for disarming Catholics and Indigenous people supports a “good moral character” requirement for obtaining a concealed carry license, a point that\u00a0Second Amendment<\/a>\u00a0groups see as a bad-faith argument for gun control.<\/p>\n The requirement is part of the\u00a0Concealed Carry Improvement Act<\/a>\u00a0that Gov.\u00a0Kathy Hochul<\/a>\u00a0(D-NY)\u00a0signed<\/a>\u00a0in July and marks the first major attempt to defend the state’s notorious gun restrictions after the\u00a0Supreme Court<\/a>\u00a0struck down the state\u2019s similarly subjective “good reason” clause in\u00a0\u00a0New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen<\/a>\u00a0<\/i>earlier this summer.<\/p>\n New York’s reasoning for the “good moral character” clause, which permits state officials to deny gun carry applications subjectively, is because the Supreme Court requires a historical basis for any law that contradicts the text of the Second Amendment.<\/p>\n In response to the CCIA, Gun Owners of America sued New York State Police Superintendent Kevin P. Bruen earlier this month, prompting the state’s unusual defense of the statute’s “good moral character” standard by his counsel. State attorneys representing Bruen said the statute is deeply rooted in “centuries of Anglo-American law and tradition” as their basis for why it should be upheld in court.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom the early days of English settlement in America, the colonies sought to prevent Native American tribes from acquiring firearms, passing laws forbidding the sale and trading of arms to Indigenous people,\u201d the state\u00a0argued<\/a>\u00a0in court documents filed on Aug. 15.<\/p>\n GOA’s Senior Vice President Erich\u00a0Pratt told the\u00a0Washington Examiner\u00a0<\/i>that the judge presiding over the case asked “very pointed questions for the state of New York” during the most recent hearing on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Pratt said U.S. District Judge Glenn Suddaby “told the state attorney that New York has now made it very hard to carry firearms concealed.”<\/p>\n “And our attorney pointed out that in defending their restrictions on concealed carry, the state has utilized the racist laws from our past to justify its new bans,” Pratt said…<\/p>\n Read more at Washington Examiner<\/a><\/p>\n