New York has agreed to drop a requirement that applicants for concealed carry gun permits list their former and current social media accounts so officials can confirm their “character.”
The move is part of a partial settlement of a lawsuit in federal court in Syracuse challenging aspects of a 2022 state gun safety law known as the Concealed Carry Improvement Act.
Among other things, the law requires applicants for a concealed carry permit to provide a list of their former and current social media accounts from the past three years to “confirm the information regarding the applicants’ character and conduct.”
One of the plaintiffs in the 2022 lawsuit, Lawrence Sloane, is described as a resident of Onondaga County and a member of Gun Owners of America. He objected to the requirement that he list his social media accounts, saying it violated his First Amendment right to free speech.
Sloane said his Facebook account is set to “friends” only, which means that only his friends can view his profile and posts on the platform. He said he refused to add a state licensing official as a “friend” so they could review his Facebook posts.
“The First Amendment protects my speech, and neither requires nor permits the government to review what I say, and certainly not as a condition of exercising my constitutional right to bear arms,” he said in the lawsuit.
He said the law also violated his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent.
“In short, I will not turn over my ‘social media,’ however and whatever that means, to the government, as a condition of applying for a license,” he said.
Judge Glenn Suddaby of U.S. District Court in the Northern District of New York put the social media requirement on hold with a temporary restraining order in October 2022 while the lawsuit proceeded.
The state has now backed down from the requirement. In a court filing on March 16, James Thompson, special counsel with the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James, said the state has agreed to drop the requirement that applicants for a concealed carry license provide information relating to their social media accounts.
Sloane agreed to drop his challenge to the law as part of the settlement, which must be approved by Suddaby.
While agreeing to drop the social media requirement, the state did not concede that it was unconstitutional.
The settlement does not stop challenges to other aspects of the law. Other plaintiffs are still challenging restrictions that bar most permit holders from carrying guns in what the law defines as “sensitive” locations — including protests, public playgrounds and parks, and Times Square.
New York adopted the new law soon after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 struck down the state’s previous concealed carry law.
In its 6-3 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the court ruled that the law’s requirement that people demonstrate a particular need for carrying a gun in order to get a permit violated the constitutional right to “keep and bear arms.”