SC Rejects Challenge to New York Gun Industry Liability Law

The US Supreme Court (SC) turned away on Monday a gun industry challenge to a New York law that permits lawsuits against gun makers, wholesalers, and dealers for allegedly endangering public safety through the sale of firearms and ammunition, Jonathan Stempel reported for Reuters.

Gun companies, including Smith & Wesson, Ruger, Beretta, Glock, Sig Sauer, and Sturm, joined the appeal.

The justices declined to hear an appeal by the industry trade group National Shooting Sports Foundation of a lower court ruling upholding the law, which New York describes as a public nuisance statute. The group argued that the law unconstitutionally conflicts with federal law.

Gun companies, including Smith & Wesson, Ruger, Beretta, Glock, Sig Sauer, and Sturm, joined the appeal.

The Supreme Court in 2025 spared Smith & Wesson from a lawsuit filed by Mexico’s government accusing the company of aiding illegal gun trafficking to drug cartels.

The New York law, signed by former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2021, requires the gun industry to use reasonable safeguards to help prevent gun trafficking, theft, and the use of “straw purchasers” who buy firearms for someone else.

It allows civil lawsuits by New York state and local officials, as well as private citizens.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation said the law was preempted by a 2005 federal law, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which shields the gun industry from civil liability when its products are used in crimes.

Under the US Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, federal law takes precedence over conflicting state laws. The Manhattan-based 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld New York’s law last year.