Existing gun regulations in New York only required minor adjustments to be effective, with the necessity for a license-to-carry rule based on objective criteria, as opposed to bias and favoritism, being the most egregious example of this.
New York might have a sensible and effective gun control system, one that respects Second Amendment rights while acknowledging that the state is not Wyoming. This could occur tomorrow if local officials had something other than gubernatorial ambitions on their minds.
The old gun restriction rules in New York, which were based on the notorious Sullivan Act of 1911, had one advantageous feature: if you were discovered unlawfully carrying a firearm, you went to jail. Whether you were a would-be gangster in The Bronx or Super Bowl great Plaxico Burress, who served 20 months for his armed shenanigans, enforcement was harsh.
Existing rules require incarceration for anyone caught illegally carrying a hidden firearm, including former football player Plaxico Burress, who served twenty months in prison less than a decade ago.
Nobody wants to hear it in an era of “decarceration” and “depolicing,” yet one of the greatest difficulties facing crime-ridden communities governed by Democrats is that many gun offenses — excepting murder — are now mostly unpunished: 61% of gun cases in Philadelphia are dismissed without charges or trial, up from less than 30% in 2016.
Of the 4,456 gun arrests made by the NYPD in 2021, there was one (not a typo!) trial conviction and much more dismissals (983) than plea bargains (698). The most likely outcome following an arrest for illegally carrying a firearm in New York is, statistically speaking, nothing.
New York makes it difficult for law-abiding folks to obtain a concealed carry license.
The issue with New York City’s license-to-carry statute was never that it was excessively stringent; rather, it was arbitrary and rewarded the well-connected. Celebrities such as Steven Seagal and Joan Rivers were awarded licenses, but regular New Yorkers long found it extremely impossible to get one. William F. Buckley Jr., when queried in 2003 about the concealed-carry permit he had obtained during his mayoral campaign four decades earlier, responded, “I have my pistol permit in my wallet, and no one knows where the gun is.”
New York fluctuates between subjective standards. Before last year’s Bruen decision, which deemed New York State’s licensing methods illegal, it was “proper cause,” and now it is “good moral character,” another nebulous requirement that the courts are sure to strike down. New York requires a single objective norm applicable to everyone.
Legal carry does not appear to have a significant impact on crime. Half of the states in the United States do not require a license to carry a firearm, and in late January, the Florida legislature initiated attempts to join them. Some of these “constitutional carry” states are home to high-crime areas like Mobile, Alabama, while others, like Vermont, have almost no violent crime. In either case, concealed carry laws appear to have no effect on violent crime, as New Hampshire, with its relatively lax carry regulations, has about the same crime rate as Massachusetts, which has far stricter restrictions. Even with more libertarian licensing regulations, New York’s crime rate is unlikely to improve significantly, because criminals do not apply for licenses.
Regardless of the outcome, New York needs an objective licensing system coupled with strict enforcement and actual jail time for unlawful gun possession. Instead of targeting criminals, the state imposes time and location restrictions on permit holders. Theoretically, these are totally reasonable and protected by the Second Amendment. There is justification for outlawing firearms in Times Square and City Hall Park.
The difficulty is that, in effect, New York intends to utilize these restrictions as a backdoor to broad prohibition: New York’s new post-Bruen statute prohibits weapons from virtually all public locations (including public transit) unless the establishment has deliberately declared itself gun-friendly. This will cause trouble for license holders, but it is unlikely that criminals will comply. Many New Yorkers recall that, despite being illegal at the time, hookers and drugs abounded around Times Square in the 1980s. Criminals are similarly unlikely to comply with gun permit regulations. Adding more rules for rule-followers to follow will not reduce crime.
Enforcement is crucial. If the powers-that-be wish to outlaw the carrying of self-defense weapons in New York’s subways, they should first consider securing the subways, which is evidently not the case at present.
The licensees themselves are not the issue. The criminals are.
»Fresh approach to New York’s gun problems: enforcement and punishment«