The anti-gunner lobby took another defeat after a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit partially reinstated a lawsuit challenging New York City’s handgun regulations.
The panel held that the city’s limits on concealed carry licenses must be weighed against the nation’s historical tradition of gun regulation as required by the Supreme Court’s ruling in New York Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.
One of the restrictions being challenged is one that limits a resident to carrying only one handgun on their person at a time. Another prohibits the purchase of more than one handgun in a 90-day period. The court noted that this regulation “serves categorically to limit the acquisition and, therefore, the possess and carry, of multiple firearms.”
The court added, “At step one, however, what matters is that the challenged 90-day rules seek in every case to delay licensed individuals' acquisition of handguns.”
New video: In Mills v. NYC, the 2nd Circuit revived challenges to NYC's one-gun carry limit, one-handgun-per-90-days rule and repealed 2-gun license cap, remanding for Bruen step two.
— John Crump (@right2bear) November 10, 2026
Partial win: nothing struck down; fee claim stays dismissed.https://t.co/NYOJwtjnSX
The city argues that these rules are necessary for deterring straw purchases.
The third rule facing a challenge caps concealed carry licenses at two handguns per person. The NYPD repealed the cap by emergency rule in August 2024.
Citing to our Nguyen case, the Second Circuit has revived a lawsuit challenging New York City’s rules allowing only two handguns on a carry license, allowing only one handgun to be carried at a time, and limiting handgun sales to one every 90 days, saying the district court was… pic.twitter.com/gHnn5X4yUI
— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) November 10, 2026
The panel stressed that its ruling did not decide whether the rules are unconstitutional but established that “the constitutionality of these rules must be determined at the second step of the Bruen analysis, which requires the government to show that a challenged rule is 'consistent with the Nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation.'”
Because of the ruling, the city will have to show that its rules are similar to those passed during the Founding era and 19th century. If it cannot, then the rules will be deemed unconstitutional as mandated by the Bruen decision.
New York City’s licensing regime is one of the strictest in the nation. The city made the rules even more imposing after the Supreme Court handed down the Bruen ruling. New York, California, and other blue states and municipalities enacted rules and laws aimed at getting around the ruling. But many have already been struck down because they don’t line up with America’s historical tradition of gun regulations.
