More than two dozen churches and a socially conservative organization this week filed a federal lawsuit challenging New York’s restrictions on guns in sensitive areas.
The churches and the group, New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, pointed to the rise in threats against houses of worship, arguing that such a ban violates their Second Amendment rights as well as a natural right to self-defense while attending a religious service.
“The disarming of citizens while attending places of ‘worship or religious observance’ is not taking place in a vacuum,” the lawsuit states. “Religiously motivated or targeted attacks continue to be a risk to every congregation nationally and in the State of New York.”
“By making it unlawful for most people to carry firearms in churches and other houses of worship, the CCIA deprives ordinary New Yorkers of their constitutionally protected right to bear arms,” said the Rev. Jason McGuire, the executive director of New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms. “In recent years, churches and other houses of worship have been implementing volunteer security teams. Many of those teams include armed congregants. Under this new law, those teams have been deemed unlawful. Security team members, who choose to carry, could face a felony conviction simply for protecting the Sunday morning worship service.”
Source: “Churches challenge New York’s ban on guns in sensitive locations,” NYStateOfPolitics.com