MOSCOW, March 22 - RAPSI. Various US pro-gun advocacy groups teamed up to sue New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and various other state and local officials over the constitutionality of a sweeping gun control law passed last January.

The right of US citizens to bear arms is enshrined in the second amendment to the US Constitution, which reads: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

The complaint claims that the New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Act, which was passed last January, is repugnant to the Second Amendment as it: “creates new offenses with severe criminal penalties for previously-lawful activities involving the acquisition and possession of rifles, handguns, shotguns, ammunition magazines, and ammunition.”

Cuomo issued a statement shortly after the law was passed claiming that with its passage, New York State would now have “the most comprehensive gun laws in the nation.”

Among the law’s key provisions are: increased reporting requirements for mental health professionals and other measures to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally unstable; an broadly defined assault weapons ban; stronger ammunition restrictions; stricter safe storage requirements; increased penalties for illegal gun use; and increased penalties for the presence of guns in schools.

Related materials on the New York Assembly’s website states that the law’s purpose is to: “protect New Yorkers by reducing the availability of assault weapons and deterring the criminal use of firearms while promoting a fair, consistent and efficient method of ensuring that sportsmen and other legal gun owners have full enjoyment of the guns to which they are entitled.”

The law was passed on the heels of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, the second deadliest US school shooting. 20-year-old Adam Lanza opened fire on students and teachers in a small town Connecticut elementary school Friday, killing 20 children and six adults. His mother’s body was discovered in her Newton, Connecticut home, and Lanza apparently died by his own hand on the scene, bringing the death toll up to 28.

The 46-page complaint concludes with the sentiment that: “In sum, all of the aforesaid terms and definitions fail to give notice of the conduct proscribed, are unconstitutionally vague, and violate the right of plaintiffs and members of plaintiff associations not to be deprived of life, liberty, and property without due process of law, contrary to the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and are thus void.”