Nov. 10, 2023 - Epoch Times
10:35
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| Good evening, and right before we dive into the main story, I'll quickly mention that if you are sick and tired of all the censorship on this platform, as well as the myriad of other platforms out there, and if you're looking for a source of actual honest news, well, you're in luck. | |
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| Now, diving into today's main topic, there was just a massive victory for the Second Amendment over in the U.S. federal court out of the Southern District of New York. | |
| Specifically, a federal judge there, he gave a legal beatdown to the city government, and he ruled that the laws putting onerous restrictions on gun licensing are, indeed, unconstitutional. | |
| And even though technically this was a New York case, the ramifications of this decision will be felt in blue cities and blue states across the whole nation. | |
| However, let me start the stage for you properly regarding what this case was really all about. | |
| Back in the year 2018, a man by the name of Joseph Schrauer went to the New York City Police Department and he applied for a handgun license and in the following year for a long gun license. | |
| However, both of his applications were denied. | |
| Mr. | |
| Schrauer then appealed both decisions, but again, his appeal was likewise denied. | |
| And as ridiculous as it might sound, the reasons that the government gave for denying his request to exercise the Second Amendment rights were several-fold, including, for one, that he had a bad driving record, and secondly, because he did not pay his tickets on time. | |
| Here's specifically what one court document said regarding the matter. | |
| Quote, These reasons track the language of the relevant New York law, which at the time required the licensing official's determination that an applicant, quote, lacks good moral character or that other good causes exist, be based on factors to include the applicant's arrest history, poor driving history, and other history that demonstrates an unwillingness to abide by the law. | |
| Meaning that when Mr. | |
| Schrauer went to get his gun licenses, the government official reviewing his application, he had the authority to determine whether this American citizen had good moral character, and among the things that he could use to make that determination was to see whether or not he had a good driving record. | |
| Just a really good reminder of how far we've actually come from 1791, when the Second Amendment was first ratified, in order to make sure that our gun rights shall, quote, not be infringed. | |
| Regardless though, you fast-forward 230 years, and that was the situation. | |
| Mr. | |
| Schrauer was denied his licenses. | |
| And as a result, he filed a lawsuit against the city, arguing, at least in part, that, quote, However, this is where things, you can say, got interesting. | |
| Because during the course of this lawsuit, as it was making its way through the legal system, it was at this time that the U.S. Supreme Court decided to take up another gun rights-related case, which was New York Pistol and Rifle Association v. | |
| Bruin. | |
| This was another case, also out of New York, challenging the legality of the concealed carry permit requirements. | |
| And so once the U.S. Supreme Court accepted the Bruin case for review, the parties involved in the Schrauer case, they agreed to put a pause on the case, to put a stay on the case, pending the outcome of the U.S. Supreme Court. | |
| They wanted to see what the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Bruin case in order to see how it's related to this case. | |
| And indeed, as we've discussed on several previous episodes, the U.S. Supreme Court, they wound up ruling in the Bruin case against New York, They invalidated New York's entire shall-issue system of concealed carry permits. | |
| And thirdly, the U.S. Supreme Court created a new legal standard for gun laws across the whole country. | |
| Moving forward, state, local, and federal governments, they must prove that their restrictive gun laws, quote, And if they can't prove that, it means that the law is by definition unconstitutional. | |
| Now, you would imagine that this Bruin decision pretty much solved the whole problem that Mr. | |
| Sauer was facing. | |
| However, you would be wrong. | |
| Because following the Bruin decision, the governor of New York, Ms. | |
| Kathy Hochul, she called the state legislature of New York into a special session, and they passed a new set of laws, which allowed the state to deny people gun licenses if they determine that an applicant has bad moral character. | |
| Quote, almost immediately, Governor Kathy Hochul called the legislature into session to pass the Concealed Carry Improvement Act. | |
| The act removed mention of proper cause, but expanded all other requirements. | |
| An applicant's social media will be scrutinized, and he or she must provide contact information for a list of close family and friends. | |
| There were similar laws passed in New York City as well. | |
| And if you're wondering how these government officials will determine whether or not you have good moral character, well, according to the law... | |
| When you apply for a permit in New York, you have to give the government officials three years' worth of your social media history in order for them to look through it and determine whether or not you have good moral character. | |
| And of course, given the fact that this is New York, well, you better hope that you didn't publicly support a certain candidate during the 2020 presidential election. | |
| Essentially, at the heart of it, what happened was that since the Bruin decision overturned the law, which stopped people from getting permits, instead of complying with the Supreme Court decision, the governments of both New York State as well as New York City, they just put up new window dressing so that it appeared that, at least on the surface, they were complying with the decision, but underneath, the effect was the exact same, denying people their Second Amendment rights based on the sole discretion of some government official who makes the determination of whether or not you have good moral character. | |
| And so, because of these new laws, the court allowed Mr. | |
| Strouder to amend his earlier complaint and to actually challenge the constitutionality of New York's new requirements as it relates to concealed carry laws. | |
| And so, Mr. | |
| Mr. Schrauer and his legal team did just that, and they were arguing that these new laws have no historical precedent in American legal tradition, and therefore, they are in fact unconstitutional. | |
| On the flip side, however, quote: The defendants in the case, New York City and the NYPD Commissioner Kachan Sowell cited 18th century laws in New Hampshire and Massachusetts that allowed authorities to arrest and disarm people for certain offenses in an attempt to show historical analogues for the regulations. | |
| the judge in the case was not buying that argument. | |
| Specifically, after many, many, many months of legal back and forth, the federal judge in the case, he ruled against New York City, finding that the gun licensing regime does indeed violate the Second Amendment. | |
| Specifically, in his 48-page ruling, Judge John Cronin, who was, for your reference, appointed to the bench by President Trump, he wrote the following, quote, Much like the proper cause inquiry invalidated in Bruin, permitting denial of a firearms license based on a government official's good moral character or good cause assessment has the effect of preventing law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their right to keep and bear arms. | |
| Relatedly, and probably more problematically, by allowing the official to make a determination of the person's moral character and to vaguely consider other good cause, the new law further bestowed vast discretion on licensing officials. | |
| Here, too, the fatal problem with the new law and the former versions of the law continues to lie in the broad discretion afforded to city officials in determining whether someone may exercise their Second Amendment right. | |
| Defendants have not identified any historical analog for investing officials with the broad discretion to restrict someone's Second Amendment right based on determining the person to lack good moral character or for a vague and undefined notion of good cause. | |
| And as such, the judge overturned the moral character requirement that was in place. | |
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| And now, let's head on back to the studio. | |
| And as such, the federal judge ruled that New York cannot deny gun licenses based on the applicant's moral character. | |
| And as you would imagine, the plaintiff in the case, Mr. | |
| Schrauer, was pleased with the decision. | |
| We here at the Epoch Times were able to get a hold of his lawyer, and here's what he told us. | |
| Quote... | |
| The court's decision was true to the text, history, and tradition analysis that began in Heller and continued through McDonald, Setano, and Bruin, which we reference our different Supreme Court decisions. | |
| He further added that once the case goes to appeal, he expects a favorable ruling based on the facts. | |
| We expect a consistent ruling in the Second Circuit. | |
| Discretion simply cannot be woven into the government's regulation of arms. | |
| And so, there you have it. | |
| Another victory on the pro-gun rights side in the never-ending battle over the Second Amendment. | |
| If you'd like to go deeper into this particular case, I'll throw all my research notes. | |
| They'll be down in the description box below this video for you to peruse at your own leisure. | |
| And then lastly, as I mentioned at the top of the episode as well, If you are indeed sick and tired of all the censorship on this platform, with or without the federal government's direct involvement, well, you're in luck. | |
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