Judge HUMILIATES New York Over The Defense It Dug Up

Judge slamming gavel on a wooden block — Photo: Denis---S / Shutterstock

A federal judge struck down New York’s ban on ordinary citizens buying body armor, ruling that a protective vest is an “arm” under the Second Amendment and that the state could not point to any law like it in American history.

Story Highlights

U.S. District Judge John L. Sinatra Jr. ruled on Wednesday, October 21, that New York’s body armor ban violates the Second Amendment.
The judge found New York could not name a single body armor rule from the founding era or after that matched its ban.
The order bars the state from enforcing its limits on buying and selling body armor, but the judge paused it for 14 days so the state can appeal.
New York passed the ban in 2022 after the Buffalo supermarket gunman wore body armor during his attack.
To defend the ban, New York pointed to old English laws, including one from 1328, which the judge said have little bearing on the Second Amendment.

Court Says Body Armor Falls Within Second Amendment Protection

Judge Sinatra, who sits in federal court in Buffalo, ruled that New York’s first-of-its-kind ban on law-abiding residents buying body armor for self-defense is unconstitutional. “Body armor is an ‘arm’ protected by the plain text of the Second Amendment,” he wrote in a 47-page opinion. Because the Constitution covers it, the state had to show the ban fits the nation’s history of similar laws, and the judge found it did not. New York’s attorney general’s office said it is reviewing the decision.

The case is Heeter v. James. It was brought in 2024 by the Firearms Policy Coalition, a gun-rights group, on behalf of members Benjamin Heeter and Joseph Wurtenberg, who said they wanted to buy body armor to protect themselves and could not. The judge granted them a permanent injunction, a court order that blocks the state from enforcing its rules on buying and selling body armor. He then put that order on hold for 14 days to give New York time to appeal. The ruling does not touch separate laws that punish wearing body armor while committing a violent crime.

How New York’s Ban Emerged After the Buffalo Massacre

On May 14, 2022, a gunman wearing steel-plated body armor killed 10 Black people at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo. On June 6, 2022, Governor Kathy Hochul signed new limits on body armor as part of a package of gun laws passed after that attack and other mass shootings. The state said the package was meant to “strengthen gun laws and protect New Yorkers.” Starting July 6, 2022, anyone outside an approved job could not buy, sell or give away body armor. Approved jobs include police officers, peace officers and members of the military.

The penalties were stiff. Buying body armor without an approved job was a class A misdemeanor, the most serious level of misdemeanor in New York, for a first offense. A second offense was a class E felony. The lawsuit named Attorney General Letitia James, State Police Superintendent Steven G. James and the acting Erie County district attorney as defendants.

Why The Judge Rejected the Ban Under the Historical Test

The judge applied the test from New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, a 2022 Supreme Court case. Under Bruen, when the Second Amendment covers something, a modern limit must match the nation’s tradition of similar laws. Relying on the Supreme Court’s 2008 Heller decision, Judge Sinatra found that the word “arms” included armor at the nation’s founding and still does. New York pointed to old English laws, including the Statute of Northampton, a law from 1328 that banned riding armed in public. The judge said those laws have little bearing on the Second Amendment adopted in 1791. He wrote that “the State is unable to identify a single regulation on body armor post-ratification,” and he found the state had not shown that modern body armor is dangerous or unusual.

The ruling lines up with a simple point about what body armor is. A vest does not fire a shot. It protects the person wearing it so he can get home to his family. The decision tells other states that broad bans with no roots in American history will face the same test. The Firearms Policy Coalition called it “a humiliating defeat for New York’s authoritarian gun control regime.” What happens next depends on whether New York appeals within the 14-day window.