Court order halts New York's ban on concealed carry in houses of worship

For the first time in nearly two months Pastor Jimmy Hardaway, Bishop Larry A. Boyd, Jr., and other church leaders in New York will be able to carry their concealed firearm at church this weekend without worrying about committing a felony crime.

A U.S. District Judge on Thursday granted a temporary restraining order prohibiting law enforcement agencies in the state from enforcing the ban on concealed carry in churches and other places of worship, siding with the pair of pastors from western New York who had recently filed a lawsuit challenging that aspect of the Concealed Carry “Improvement” Act.

In his opinion granting the TRO, U.S. District Judge John A. Sinatra, Jr. declared that “ample Supreme Court precedent addressing the individual’s right to keep and bear arms- from Heller and McDonald to its June 2022 in Bruen– dictates that New York’s new place of worship restriction is equally unconstitutional.”