Key Takeaways
- Gun Owners of America and Gun Owners Foundation achieved a legal victory as New York drops its social media disclosure requirement for concealed carry permits.
- The settlement permanently blocks the enforcement of the law requiring applicants to submit three years of social media history.
- Officials aim to ensure that the PPB-3 application no longer requests social media information from applicants.
- Critics labeled the original requirement as an invasion of privacy and a violation of multiple amendments.
- GOA and GOF will continue to challenge other restrictions under New York’s post-Bruen concealed carry law.
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NEW YORK – Gun Owners of America and Gun Owners Foundation have announced a formal legal victory after New York state agreed to permanently drop its social media disclosure requirement for concealed carry permit applicants.
The settlement, filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York, comes in the case Antonyuk v. James, No. 1:22-cv-986-GTS-PJE. State defendants have consented to a permanent injunction against enforcement of N.Y. Penal Law § 400.00(1)(o)(iv), the provision that required applicants to submit three years of social media account history as part of the licensing process.
This follows an earlier federal court ruling that blocked the requirement, which I covered previously. The new settlement makes that prohibition permanent and places a direct obligation on the Superintendent of the New York State Police to ensure the PPB-3 application form no longer asks applicants for social media information.
Erich Pratt, Senior Vice President of Gun Owners of America, framed the law as a deliberate effort to suppress lawful carry. “New York’s ‘Concealed Carry Improvement Act’ is a smokescreen. This law has never been about improving concealed carry for law-abiding citizens but instead is a calculated effort to disarm as many New Yorkers as possible,” Pratt said.
John Velleco, Executive Vice President of Gun Owners Foundation, called the original requirement a multi-amendment violation. “New York’s demand that applicants surrender three years of their private social media history was a blatant invasion of privacy and a massive government overreach,” Velleco said. He added that the victory extends beyond the Second Amendment, protecting First and Fourth Amendment rights as well.
The litigation is not over. GOA and GOF will continue challenging other provisions of New York’s post-Bruen concealed carry law, including restrictions on carrying in public parks, zoos, and establishments licensed to serve alcohol under N.Y. Penal Law § 265.01-d and § 265.01-e.
New York’s Concealed Carry Improvement Act was passed in 2022 following the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision, which struck down the state’s “proper cause” licensing standard. Critics have argued the law replaced one unconstitutional barrier with several others.
For law-abiding gun owners, this outcome is a reminder that constitutional rights cannot be conditioned on surrendering personal information that has no bearing on legal eligibility. The right to armed self-defense is a fundamental civil right, and cases like this one continue to push back against government overreach at the application stage.
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