A federal judge upheld New York’s ban on guns at summer camps, rejecting a challenge by Orthodox Jewish summer camp The Zone.
Eliyohu Mintz, founder of the Jewish nonprofit Oorah, and employee Eric Schwartz sued over the ban on behalf of Oorah’s Jewish sleepaway camp in the Catskills, The Zone. They argued that the camp’s remote location means there can be delays in police response.
Elizabeth Coombe, a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York ruled on Tuesday that people associated with the camp had faced “many incidents of antisemitic threats, verbal harassment and insults over the years” but that restrictions on firearms at sites where children gather have historical precedent.
The court said that disputes over the camp’s vulnerability and police response times would not change that legal conclusion and that the ban does not apply to security guards. Neither plaintiff is a security guard, but both have valid concealed carry licenses in New York State. (JNS sought comment from Mintz.)
