New York made it a crime to buy a bulletproof vest. A federal judge just struck that down.

New York made it a crime for ordinary people to buy a bulletproof vest. A federal judge just ruled body armor is an "arm" under the 2A, and NY couldn't find a single historical precedent for banning it. Defense is a right. https://t.co/JPtPF8dKk8

— Liberty.Win (@LibertyDotWin) October 22, 2026

A federal judge on Wednesday overturned New York state’s ban on the purchase of bullet-proof vests and body armor, determining it to be an unconstitutional infringement on the Second Amendment.

According to U.S. District Judge John Sinatra in a in a 47-page opinion, the right for citizens to bear arms has historically included defensive body armor — the kind New York’s Penal Law 270.21 sought to restrict.

Sinatra, a Donald Trump appointee, ruled that ordinary citizens’ understanding of the term “arms,” at the time of the country’s founding, would have included defensive body armor, and is consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of arms regulation, as required under the Supreme Court’s 2022 landmark ruling in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen.

“Indeed, body armor is an ‘arm’ protected by the plain text of the Second Amendment,” Sinatra wrote. “As such, regulation in this area is permissible only if the state demonstrates that the new enactment is consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of sufficiently analogous regulations. New York fails that test.”

https://www.courthousenews.com/new-york-body-armor-prohibition-struck-down-by-judge/