Judge Rules That Nunchucks Are Protected Under The Second Amendment

Good news for people who are into nunchucks. New York’s U.S. District Court Judge Pamela K. Chen recently ruled that New York’s 40-year-old law banning nunchucks is unconstitutional.

I didn’t even know New York had a law banning nunchucks, but it’s New York, so why am I surprised?

The law was first enacted as a response to state lawmakers’ fears that the popularity of martial arts a la Bruce Lee was inspiring hoodlums to get creative in their choice of weapons. The ban not only applied to would-be criminal nunchuckers on the street, it even banned the weapon’s use in martial arts training facilities. As the Washington Post points out, “They were so dangerous, lawmakers believed, that not even karate teachers could keep them in a locker at home.”

Michael Maloney, who’s SUPER into martial arts, managed to make a legit case against the law.

“The trial we are about to begin concerns the right of the people to keep and bear arms,” Maloney wrote. “As recently as ten years ago, the Supreme Court still had not given meaning and content to the provision in the Constitution that sets forth that right, although the Second Amendment has been part of our Constitution since 1791.Today, the balance between the exercise of that right and the recalcitrant plague of gun violence in America is finally beginning to be worked out.”

New York Penal Law § 265.01 criminalizes as a Class A misdemeanor the possession of nunchaku, in addition to a number of other weapons, some of which are likewise Kung Fu-themed: “A person is guilty of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree when: (1) [h]e or she possesses any firearm, electronic dart gun, electronic stun gun, gravity knife, switchblade knife, pilum ballistic knife, metal knuckle knife, cane sword, billy, blackjack, bludgeon, plastic knuckles, metal knuckles, chuka stick, sand bag, sandclub, wrist-brace type slingshot or slungshot, shirken or ‘Kung Fu star.'”

I didn’t realize it was that bad. Firearms? Check. Taser? Check. Knives? Check. Metal knuckles? Check.

I’d SO be in trouble. I wonder if monkey fist keychains are illegal too. Probably.

Anyway, she agrees that the existing law banning nunchucks is unconstitutional.

“Considering the scant evidence presented, the Court finds that Defendant has not met her burden to exclude nunchaku from the ambit of Second Amendment protection,” Chen writes. “Simply put, Defendant does not contradict the contention that the nunchaku’s primary use, which Defendant concedes is as ‘a tool from the sphere of martial arts’ (Dkt. 199, at 10), is a lawful one. To the extent any evidence was offered at trial regarding the ‘subjective motives of [nunchaku] owners,’ the Court has considered the testimony of Plaintiff himself, Pelletteri, and Orcutt as further support for the conclusion that the typical possession of nunchaku in this country is for recreational and other lawful purposes.”

Best part:

“Therefore, because Defendant has failed to demonstrate, by clear and convincing evidence, or even by a preponderance, that nunchakus are not typically used by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes, she has failed to rebut the presumption that the possession and use of nunchaku is within the scope of the Second Amendment’s protections.”

HECK YEAH 2A IS BAE. Nunchuck away!

h/t Daily Wire