NRA says N.Y. moves could drive group out of business

NEW YORK—The NRA might soon be shooting blanks.

The gun-rights group claims it’s facing financial ruin because of a full-frontal assault from the Cuomo administration.

In a recent court filing, the NRA said it suffered tens of millions of dollars in damages as a result of the state’s campaign to dissuade banks and insurance companies from doing business with the group.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his state regulators “seek to silence one of America’s oldest constitutional-rights advocates,” the National Rifle Association said in the July 20 court filing. “If their abuses are not enjoined, they will soon, substantially, succeed.”

The governor fired back after the court papers came to light Friday.

“If I could have put the NRA out of business, I would have done it 20 years ago,” he said.

The state is preparing to file a motion to dismiss the suit, he added.

“New York will not be intimidated by the NRA’s frivolous lawsuit to advance its dangerous gun-peddling agenda,” Cuomo said.

The fierce back-and-forth marks the latest maneuvering in a case brought by the NRA in May.

The firearm lobbyists took aim at Cuomo and the state Department of Financial Services, claiming the effort to persuade businesses to abandon the group violated its First Amendment rights.

The NRA filed suit a month after Maria Vullo, the state’s top financial services regulator, sent a letter to banks and insurers following the Feb. 14 mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla.

In the new filing, first reported by Rolling Stone magazine, the group says the pressure from the state has produced immediate results.

“As a direct result of this coercion, multiple financial institutions have succumbed to defendants’ demands and entered into consent orders with (state regulators) that compel them to terminate long-standing, beneficial business relationships with the NRA, both in New York and elsewhere,” the NRA claims.

Andrew Cuomo