As of this week, the ban on nunchucks in New York state has officially been lifted.
We were unaware there was even a ban until now, but apparently it was put into place in 1974. According to the Associated Press, Brooklyn Judge Pamela Chen ruled on Friday that the ban on nunchucks were unconstitutional because they violated the Second Amendment. In the federal ruling it was stated that the ban “arose out of a concern that, as a result of the rising popularity ‘of ‘Kung Fu’ movies and shows,′ ‘various circles of the state’s youth’ — including ‘muggers and street gangs’ — were ‘widely’ using nunchaku to cause ‘many serious injuries.’”
The battle for this ruling was fought by plaintiff James Maloney, who was charged for possessing nunchucks in 2000. He kept nunchucks in his home to teach his son a form of martial arts he called “Shafan Ha Lavan.” He filed a complaint and the case was appealed until it reached the U.S. Supreme Court, where they sent it back down to the lower court for reconsideration.
As mentioned in the AP, Chen’s ruling states that not only is possessing nunchucks unconstitutional, but so is “the state’s law as it pertained to possessing nunchucks as well as to manufacturing, transporting or disposing of them.”
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