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Stefanik co-authors resolution denouncing latest state gun laws

WASHINGTON — The North Country’s congresswomen have teamed up to launch another attack on New York’s most recently passed gun laws.

Last week, Reps. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, and Claudia Tenney, R-Canandaigua, introduced a resolution on the House floor that calls the state’s recently passed Concealed Carry Improvement Act unconstitutional.

The law, which largely has been allowed to take effect while federal courts rule on its validity, is being considered by the U.S. Court of Appeals. The U.S. Supreme Court invalidated New York’s previous concealed carry laws last year, prompting Albany Democrats to push for passage of the CCIA in mid-2022.

The law changed much of the application process for concealed carry weapons, which were already relatively difficult to obtain in New York.

One of its more controversial sections limits where concealed carry weapons could be carried once someone obtains a permit, and has become the basis for numerous challenges in state and federal courts.

“Kathy Hochul’s gun grabbing law is unconstitutional and a direct attack on our Upstate rights and values,” Stefanik said. “We know that Hochul passed this law declaring historical reenactors and lawful gun owners in the Adirondack Park felons in direct defiance after the United States Supreme Court struck down New York’s gun laws, but still she doubled down on her unconstitutional agenda.”

If the resolution were to come up for a vote in the Republican-controlled House, it would make no material impact on the state of the law or the court cases challenging it, but it would stand as an official recognition of the law as unconstitutional and embolden the law’s challengers.

“This resolution affirms our belief that New York’s latest law is unconstitutional and that state governments should support our Second Amendment rights, not undermine them,” Tenney said.

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