Federal Appeal Argues Second Amendment Violated After NYPD Admits Gun Licensing Regime Has No Deadline

NEW YORK, April 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Civil rights attorney Susan Chana Lask has filed a federal appeal today in the Second Circuit on behalf of plaintiffs challenging NYPD's failure to comply with statutory deadlines for firearm license applications, which plaintiffs argue violates the Second Amendment.

See the March 4, 2026 hearing transcript, the Berkovich declaration, and other relevant filings at https://appellate-brief.com/susan-chana-lask-files-second-amendment-appeal/.

The appeal arises from DiSalvo et al. v. The City of New York et al., Case No. 26-CV-00274, filed in the Eastern District of New York. The complaint alleges that New York Penal Law § 400 requires the City to grant or deny firearm license applications within six months of "presentment," yet all five plaintiffs waited years without decisions while the NYPD License Division ignored their calls and emails.

Only after Lask served the complaint seeking emergency injunctive relief did the NYPD act on all five applications within 24 hours.

"A systemic failure to respect constitutional rights is underscored by NYPD's admission that it received 23,000 firearm applications in 2025 but assigned only 80 staff members to process them," said Susan Chana Lask, attorney for the plaintiffs. "With a $6.14 billion budget, NYPD can hire enough staff to timely process applications instead of forcing citizens to file federal lawsuits before it will act," says Lask.

The lawsuit highlights another NYPD admission that Penal Law § 400.00 requires action on the firearms applications within six months of "presentment," but NYPD claims that "presentment" occurs only when "all documents are submitted" with the application, as stated in a filed declaration by Nicole Berkovich, Director of the NYPD License Division. 

Plaintiffs contend that "presentment" means the date the application is filed is the date the six-month statutory period starts. That matters because NYPD ignores applicants seeking help and does not tell them within six months what additional documents, if any, are needed.

"I was never told within six months of filing my application, or for a year after, that documents were needed. NYPD ignored my calls and emails for a year. It took this lawsuit to get a response within 24 hours, showing NYPD could act but chooses not to," says John DiSalvo, lead plaintiff.

The appeal follows a March 4, 2026 hearing at which NYPD also admitted its licensing regime has multiple stages, including post-approval steps such as applying to purchase a firearm, with no deadlines. Despite those admissions, Judge Natasha C. Merle held that the NYPD's adjudication of the first stage of license applications mooted preliminary injunctive relief, characterized plaintiffs' request as seeking a "bright-line rule" licensing regime deadlines and found that Second Amendment violations are not an irreparable harm.

The appeal will argue that plaintiffs never asked the court to create a new deadline. They asked the court to enforce the existing six-month statutory deadline and consider that years-long delays and an open-ended post-approval process violate the Second Amendment. It will also challenge NYPD's effort to evade review of constitutional issues by acting only after suit was filed – conduct barred by the voluntary-cessation doctrine. See Mhany Mgmt., Inc. v. County of Nassau, 819 F.3d 581, 603-04 (2d Cir. 2016).

Critically, the appeal asks the Second Circuit to enforce the Supreme Court holding in Bruen that the Second Amendment is not "a second-class right" and licensing delays may violate the Second Amendment (597 U.S. 1, 70, n.9 (2022)); thus, Lask argues, making it an irreparable harm requiring immediate attention.

ABOUT: Susan Chana Lask is a civil rights trial and appellate attorney with over 35 years handling high-impact constitutional litigation. Her work includes serving as lead counsel in Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders, the landmark Supreme Court civil rights case on prison strip searches, and representing the plaintiff in Christiansen v. Omnicom, where an opinion by the Second Circuit Chief Justice agreed with Lask that decades of federal precedent must change to protect employee rights.

SOURCE Law Offices of Susan Chana Lask