The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a challenge brought by the gun industry against a New York law that opens the door for lawsuits targeting firearms manufacturers, wholesalers, and dealers accused of endangering public safety through their sales of guns and ammunition.
The justices turned down an appeal filed by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, an industry trade group, after a lower federal court had upheld the New York statute, which the state classifies as a public nuisance law.
Several prominent gun manufacturers — including Smith & Wesson, Ruger, Beretta, Glock, Sig Sauer, and Sturm — had joined the appeal, arguing that New York’s law unconstitutionally clashed with existing federal legislation.
The New York law requires firearms industry participants to take reasonable precautions against gun trafficking, theft, and so-called “straw purchases,” where someone buys a firearm on behalf of another person. It also opens the door to civil lawsuits from both state and local government officials as well as private citizens.
It is worth noting that in 2025, the Supreme Court shielded Smith & Wesson from a lawsuit filed by the Mexican government, which had accused the company of facilitating illegal gun trafficking to drug cartels.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation said it was disappointed by the court’s decision not to intervene. Spokesperson Mark Oliva stated in an email: “NSSF sincerely believes that those criminals who illegally misuse lawful products should be held responsible for the harms they cause when they commit their crimes. Holding the firearm industry responsible for the criminal misuse of a firearm is akin to holding Anheuser-Busch and Ford Motor Company responsible for damages from drunk-driving crimes.”
New York’s Democratic Attorney General Letitia James had defended the law throughout the legal proceedings. Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul described the outcome as “a massive victory” in the fight to curb gun violence. The law was originally signed in 2021 by Hochul’s predecessor, Democrat Andrew Cuomo.
“The gun lobby fought tooth and nail against this first-in-the-nation law,” Hochul said in a statement. “New York will not allow gun manufacturers to profit from tragedy.”
The National Shooting Sports Foundation had argued the New York law was overridden by a 2005 federal statute known as the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which generally shields the gun industry from civil liability when its products are used in criminal acts. Under the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, federal law takes precedence over conflicting state laws.
The Manhattan-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had upheld New York’s law last year. Circuit Judge Eunice Lee, appointed by Democratic former President Joe Biden, wrote that Congress intended to preserve “at least some causes of action” when a defendant knowingly violated federal or state firearms sales and marketing laws and that violation was a direct cause of harm.
While the appeal did not center on Second Amendment gun rights, the trade group warned that laws like New York’s could threaten those rights by exposing gun companies to “crushing liability” for crimes they had no part in. The group also argued that a “predicate exception” within the federal law limited industry liability only to failures involving specific, controllable obligations or prohibitions.
New York countered that the predicate exception allowed for liability in some cases involving “downstream acts” by third parties, and noted that at least nine other states have enacted similar laws designed to satisfy that exception.
The appeal had drawn support from the National Rifle Association, 24 Republican state attorneys general, and several dozen Republican members of Congress.
The Supreme Court has significantly broadened gun rights through three landmark rulings since 2008, when it first established that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to keep and bear arms.
