Federal Judge Upholds Majority of New York Gun Law

A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that New York’s expanded ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines was constitutional, but struck down a provision forbidding gun owners from loading their firearms with more than seven rounds.

The judge, William M. Skretny of Federal District Court in Buffalo, called the seven-round limit “an arbitrary restriction” that violated the Second Amendment.

But Judge Skretny said the greater restrictions on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines were constitutional because they served to “further the state’s important interest in public safety.”

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and lawmakers passed the legislation, among the most restrictive in the country, in January in response to the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., last December.

New York was the first state to pass new gun laws after the Newtown shooting. Judge Skretny’s ruling offered a victory to gun control advocates at the end of a year when relatively few new restrictions were passed in state capitals, and efforts to pass new legislation on the federal level were driven back in Congress.

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