The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear National Shooting Sports Foundation, Inc. v. James, leaving New York’s gun-industry public nuisance law standing for now and giving anti-gun states a dangerous opening to continue their lawfare campaign against lawful gun makers, distributors, and dealers.
The Court’s June 15 order in docket No. 25-1026 says only two words that matter here: “Petition DENIED.”
That is not a ruling on the merits or an endorsement of New York Attorney General Letitia James’s attack on the firearms industry. It is not a declaration that Congress’s Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act is meaningless. But in practical terms, it leaves the Second Circuit’s bad decision in place and allows New York’s anti-PLCAA workaround to survive another day. That should concern every gun owner in America.
New York’s law was signed in 2021 by then-Governor Andrew Cuomo and was designed to expose firearm industry members to civil lawsuits under a so-called public nuisance theory. The law targets gun makers, wholesalers, distributors, and dealers for allegedly endangering public safety through the sale or marketing of firearms and ammunition.
New York wants to hold the lawful firearms industry responsible when criminals misuse guns.
That is exactly the sort of lawsuit Congress tried to stop when it passed PLCAA in 2005. Congress understood what gun-control politicians and trial lawyers were doing. They were not merely trying to win traditional lawsuits based on actual wrongdoing. They were trying to bankrupt the firearms industry through endless litigation over crimes committed by third parties.
A gun manufacturer does not commit a robbery. A distributor does not pull the trigger in a gang shooting. A licensed dealer who follows the law is not responsible because a criminal somewhere down the line breaks the law. That basic principle should not be difficult, unless the real goal is not justice but destruction of the industry.
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NSSF and 14 additional plaintiffs sued New York Attorney General Letitia James to stop enforcement of the law. The plaintiffs argued that New York was trying to overrule the judgment of Congress, regulate out-of-state businesses, and trample constitutional limits.
The case made its way through the federal courts, and the Second Circuit upheld the law in July 2025. The panel said NSSF had not met the burden for a facial, pre-enforcement challenge. It also held that New York’s statute fit within PLCAA’s “predicate exception,” did not violate the dormant Commerce Clause, and was not unconstitutionally vague.
That “predicate exception” is the heart of the fight. PLCAA generally blocks lawsuits against the firearms industry for harms caused by criminal misuse of firearms. But it allows certain lawsuits when a gun industry defendant knowingly violates a law applicable to the sale or marketing of firearms and that violation causes the harm.
New York’s trick is to write a broad, gun-specific nuisance law and then claim that any lawsuit brought under that law falls inside PLCAA’s exception. If that maneuver works, the exception swallows the rule. Congress closes the front door, and New York crawls through a side window.
That is why the Supreme Court petition mattered. AmmoLand reported in March that a major amici brief, including the National Rifle Association, Second Amendment Foundation, American Suppressor Association, Independence Institute, Montana, and 23 other states, warned the justices that New York’s law was not merely a local consumer-protection measure. It was an attempt to revive the same junk lawsuits Congress barred in 2005 and let one hostile state pressure the national firearms market.
The danger is not limited to New York. Once one blue state gets away with this scheme, others can copy it. The formula is simple: pass a statute aimed only at the firearms industry, dress it up as public nuisance law, claim it fits within PLCAA’s predicate exception, and then let government lawyers and private plaintiffs drag gun companies into expensive lawsuits over crimes they did not commit.
The firearms industry is not asking for special treatment. It is asking for the same basic fairness every other lawful industry receives. Ford is not sued out of existence because a drunk driver kills someone in an F-150. Anheuser-Busch is not blamed every time a criminal drives drunk after drinking beer. We do not hold kitchen knife makers responsible for stabbings. We do not sue baseball bat manufacturers every time a thug uses a bat as a weapon.
But when the product is a firearm, the left suddenly throws causation, personal responsibility, federal law, and constitutional rights into the trash.
That is the real issue here. The Second Amendment protects the right to keep and bear arms, but that right depends on the ability of Americans to acquire arms, ammunition, parts, and accessories through a functioning lawful market. If anti-gun politicians cannot ban guns outright, they try to attack the supply chain. If they cannot confiscate every rifle and handgun, they try to sue the companies that make and sell them into submission.
The end result is the same: fewer dealers, fewer manufacturers willing to serve hostile states, higher prices, less access, and a constitutional right that exists on paper while becoming harder to exercise in real life.
The Supreme Court’s denial of certiorari does not end the fight, or that future application of New York’s law is lawful. It does not stop as-applied challenges if New York or private plaintiffs use the statute to pursue the exact sort of blame-the-industry lawsuits Congress meant to prohibit.
But it does mean New York’s law remains alive. It means the Second Circuit’s decision remains the law in that circuit. And it means gun owners should expect anti-gun states to take the denial as encouragement.
This is how the modern gun-control machine works. When regulations fail, they litigate. When Congress protects lawful commerce, they relabel the same old lawsuits as “public nuisance” claims and pretend nothing has changed.
The Supreme Court had a chance to stop that tactic now. It chose not to.
Gun owners, the firearms industry, and pro-Second Amendment lawmakers should treat that as a warning. PLCAA was passed because the left’s anti-gun lawfare campaign was real. New York is proving it still is.
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About Duncan Johnson:
Duncan Johnson is a lifelong firearms enthusiast and unwavering defender of the Second Amendment—where “shall not be infringed” means exactly what it says. A graduate of George Mason University, he enjoys competing in local USPSA and multi-gun competitions whenever he’s not covering the latest in gun rights and firearm policy. Duncan is a regular contributor to AmmoLand News and serves as part of the editorial team responsible for AmmoLand’s daily gun-rights reporting and industry coverage.
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