New York Town Bans Gun Stores, I Smell a Legal Smackdown Coming Soon

Opinion

For far too long, the Second Amendment could be referred to as the Rodney Dangerfield of the Bill of Rights.

Within many circles of so-called civil rights advocates, it simply got no respect.  With the landmark Heller, McDonald, and Bruen rulings from the U. S. Supreme Court, many of those who looked at the right to keep and bear arms as a second-class right, or dismissed it completely as a “collective” right not held by individuals, were forced to admit an uncomfortable, to them, truth.

The Second Amendment was added to the U.S. Constitution to protect the right of law-abiding citizens to possess firearms.

What many of the people who continue to despise the idea of anyone owning firearms still don’t seem to understand (or simply ignore) is that, to possess firearms, you also must be able to acquire them.  Ignoring this rather obvious logical connection, anti-gun extremists continue to do whatever they feel they can to try to limit firearm ownership by limiting the ability to acquire them—in spite of the fact that such actions should be considered unconstitutional by anyone with even the most rudimentary critical thinking skills.

In that vein, Babylon Village, N.Y., which lies about 25 miles outside New York City on the east coast of Long Island, recently decided it can ignore the Second Amendment, and imposed a ban on gun stores.

A February 6 article in a local newspaper, The Beacon, reported, “No one will be able to sell firearms, ammunition, fireworks or other explosives in the Village of Babylon, according to a new law approved by the Village Board last week.”

The article noted that, although some objections were raised by people attending the public meeting, the Board of Trustees approved the ban unanimously.

Deputy Mayor Frank Seibert claimed, “For safety reasons, I think this is a good policy.”  He did not, apparently, elaborate on what, exactly, were the “safety reasons.”

Mayor Mary Adams attempted to justify the move by noting that there were concerns about people selling marijuana (illegally, we presume) behind a local marijuana store (New York legalized recreational marijuana sale/use in 2022).

If there’s known illegal activity, then do something about it.  But alleged illegal activity behind a permitted marijuana store should not be relevant as an apparent excuse for outlawing all gun stores in the village. Especially when one considers we have an enumerated right to own and acquire firearms, while sale or use of marijuana is not constitutionally protected.

Adams also tried defending the village’s ban on gun stores by noting other areas allow them.  But that’s not how protected rights work.  Imagine if the village took the same approach to any other protected rights?

Using the Mayor’s logic, the village could ban houses of worship, newspapers, bookstores, legal practices, and virtually anything else it wants, provided another area allows them.

While we don’t anticipate other civil rights organizations like the ACLU raising objections to the gun store ban, we can guarantee the group would scream bloody murder if Mayor Adams and her cohorts on the Board of Trustees started banning newspapers and houses of worship.

Perhaps to avoid being accused of completely banning the sale of firearms in Babylon, the new law will allow for the continuation of gun shows that take place at the American Legion Hall in Babylon.  These apparently take place twice a year, although it is unclear if the new law (we have yet to see a copy of what was enacted) would allow for more frequent shows.

But simply “allowing” two gun shows per year should not appease anyone who is concerned with the right to arms.  It is not an “occasional” right, just as it is not a “collective” right.  Would free press advocates be satisfied with the village “allowing” newspapers to be sold only twice a year?  Would those who cherish the freedom to worship as they see fit be satisfied with doing so only twice a year?

Perhaps the most ironic aspect of the American Legion Hall gun show exemption is the fact that anti-gun advocates have been targeting gun shows for decades.

In their world, where all guns are evil, gun shows are a breeding ground for illicit activities involving firearms.  It seems counterintuitive that Babylon would prefer having gun shows over gun stores, considering the lengths to which other anti-gun extremists have gone to vilify those very shows.

Ultimately, the actions of the village to ban gun stores has nothing to do with “safety,” and everything to do with trying to advance anti-gun efforts.  Remember, this is New York we are talking about; a state that has some of the most restrictive laws on the books when it comes to firearms.  The state already has draconian restrictions on the private sale of firearms, so virtually all transfers must go through a gun store.

New York gun laws regularly land the state in the top five, if not at the top, of lists put out by anti-gun organizations when they rank states based on what anti-gun laws they would like to see in place.  While New York regularly gets an A from anti-gun organizations for infringing on the rights of gun owners, we imagine Babylon would get an A+ for going the extra mile of making guns even harder to acquire by its law-abiding residents.

We will be looking into the actions of Babylon further to see what can be done to protect the Second Amendment rights of its residents.  Stay tuned.

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About NRA-ILA:

Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the “lobbying” arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess, and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Visit: www.nra.org