The question in this case is whether a state law requiring bow-and-arrow users to maintain a minimum distance from dwellings, schools, and recreational areas when discharging their weapons preempts a more restrictive town law.
The Town of Smithtown passed an ordinance barring the discharge of “firearms” within “all areas” of the Town, except on the firearm user’s property and on the property of others who consent. Even within those permitted zones, however, firearm-users may not discharge their weapon weapons if they are “within 500 feet from a dwelling, school or occupied structure, or a park, beach, playground or any other outdoor recreational or nonrecreational activities.” The ordinance defines “firearm” to include “a bow and arrow.”
Hunters for Deer, Inc., along with its president, challenged the Town’s ordinance’s restriction on bow-and-arrow discharges. They claimed that New York’s Environmental Conservation law preempts that restriction. The Environmental Conservation Law bars people from discharging a longbow within 150 feet and a crossbow within 250 feet of “a dwelling house, farm building or farm structure actually occupied or used, school building, school playground, public structure, or occupied factory or church.” When plaintiffs sought summary judgment based on this theory, Supreme Court rejected the theory and denied plaintiffs’ motion.
The Second Department disagreed and granted plaintiffs summary judgment. The court held that the Town’s ordinance could not survive “conflict preemption,” which invalidates “a local law [that] prohibits what a state law explicitly allows” or “a local law [that] explicitly allows” what “a state law prohibits.” Here, the court held, state law explicitly allows longbow users to discharge their weapons if they are more than 150 feet away, and crossbow users to discharge their weapons if they are more than 250 feet away, from a dwelling, school, or recreational area. And because the Town’s ordinance prohibits such discharges, it is preempted.
The court acknowledged that New York’s Town Law allows towns to pass ordinances “prohibiting the discharge of firearms in areas in which such activity may be hazardous to the general public policy or nearby residents.” But the court interpreted the term “firearm” as used in the Town Law to exclude bows and arrows.
The Court of Appeals granted leave to appeal.