The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) Monday, allowing an appeals court’s ruling in favor of Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James to stand.
Then-Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a law intended to allow “public nuisance” litigation against firearms manufacturers in 2021 as a means to bypass the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act of 2005 (PLCAA). NSSF expressed disappointment with the news the Supreme Court would not hear the case, which it brought in December 2021 as part of a pre-enforcement challenge, according to court documents.
“NSSF respects the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court but is disappointed it declined to grant certiorari in this case,” the firearms industry trade group said in a statement provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “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 or baseball bat and knife makers responsible for criminal assault with their lawfully made and lawfully sold products,” NSSF continued.
James, as attorney general, defended the law in court. James sued the NRA in August 2020, seeking the group’s dissolution after promishing to “target the NRA” in a July 2018 release by her campaign and vowing to “investigate the legitimacy of the NRA as a charitable institution.”
“The NRA is an organ of deadly propaganda masquerading as a charity for public good,” James claimed in the release.
James also sued President Donald Trump in September 2022, alleging he overstated the value of real estate holdings in order to obtain loans . She also promised to investigate Trump during her 2018 campaign for attorney general, during which she labeled him an “illegitimate president.”
NSSF initially appealed to the Supreme Court in February, after the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that the law did not conflict with the PLCAA or the Commerce Clause.
“Here, in the absence of any evidence or specific findings regarding the economic benefits and burdens of Section 898, we find no undue burden,” the court said in its ruling.
New Jersey filed suit against Glock in December 2024 over co-called “Glock switches,” devices that allow the popular semiautomatic pistols to fire like machine guns. In the litigation, New Jersey claimed that the company created a “public nuisance” under a 2022 law similar to the one enacted in New York due to its firearms being easily convertible.
Such conversions are illegal without paying a tax and receiving permission from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), according to 26 USC Chapter 53, and can result in a sentence of up to ten years in federal prison if convicted.
NSSF sued to block the law, but a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit dismissed the case, claiming the group had “jumped the gun.” The trade group re-filed the suit seeking to block New Jersey’s law in February 2025, following the state’s litigation against Glock.
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