New York State Attorney General Letitia James, Westchester District Attorney Mimi Rocah and the superintendent of the New York State Police were hit with a lawsuit Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York challenging the state's ban on semiautomatic firearms.

The complaint, brought by Phillips Lytle, the Firearms Policy Coalition and the Second Amendment Foundation, argues that the ban unjustly designates AR-15s and other rifles as assault weapons due to a campaign by 'anti-gun publicists' seeking to suppress lawful firearm ownership.