New York leaders pledged on Thursday to pass legislation that broadly restricts the carrying of pistols as soon as possible, and criticized the United States Supreme Court for scrapping a previous measure in a decision that will affect five others. states and tens of millions of Americans.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said she would convene a special legislative session in July as soon as possible and outlined proposals that could allow the state to enforce some of the country’s most restrictive gun laws. Democratic leaders in the legislature pledged to work with the governor.
Ms. Hochul was visibly upset at a press conference in Manhattan as she prepared to sign a school security measure named after a teen killed in the 2018 mass shooting in Parkland, Florida. She called the Supreme Court decision “shocking, absolutely shocking” and said it would make New Yorkers less safe.
“We are already dealing with a major crisis around gun violence,” Ms Hochul said. “We don’t need to add more fuel to this fire.”
Her comments came minutes after the publication of the Supreme Court ruling, written by Judge Clarence Thomas, which declared unconstitutional a century-old law that gives New York officials far-reaching authority to decide who can carry guns. California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts and New Jersey, which have similar laws, will also be affected by the decision.
Judge Thomas made it clear that any law restricting the carrying of guns in New York City as a whole would be unacceptable in court.
“Put simply,” he wrote, “there is no historical basis for New York to effectively declare the island of Manhattan a ‘sensitive place’ simply because it is crowded and generally protected by the New York City Police Department. “
The ruling did not affect states with “shall issue” laws. Those measures give local officials less freedom to decide who can carry weapons, but can still impose significant restrictions on applicants. The distinction, made clear in a concurring opinion by Judge Brett Kavanaugh, may allow states where restrictions have broad support to draft new rules.
In New York, Ms. Hochul met with the mayors of New York’s six largest cities to discuss potential legislation. She said leaders were planning changes to laws governing permitting, which may require additional training. They also plan to identify so-called sensitive locations where weapons would not be allowed. Ms Hochul declined to comment on possible locations as lawmakers debated, but said she believed subways should be included.
The state’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority is already enacting rules to keep guns out of subways, trains and buses, Paige Graves, its general counsel, said in a statement.
Ms. Hochul added that she hoped to establish a system where pistols would be banned from private companies unless the owners formally allowed them.
Joseph Blocher, a Second Amendment expert at the Duke University School of Law in North Carolina, said some of those proposals could meet the specifications set by the Supreme Court in its ruling, but warned that difficult questions would inevitably arise.
He explained, for example, that officials can block weapons within 100 feet of a school or government building, and that such buffer zones can make a significant portion of a city off-limits. But he said it was an open question whether those kinds of restrictions would be passed through the courts.
New York law isn’t off the books yet. The case is now returning to a lower court — the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit — which in turn is expected to send the case to the Federal District Court in New York, said Adam Winkler, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, specializing in constitutional law and gun policy.
That court will likely give New York a grace period, rather than immediately repeal the law, Mr. Winkler said.
“We’ve seen this happen in the past where the courts have given lawmakers some time to pass a law,” he said. In this case, he added that the alternative would be to “let everyone carry guns on the streets of New York.”
New York officials rushed to explain that the decision will not take effect immediately.
“Nothing changes today,” Mayor Eric Adams said at a press conference at City Hall. He called the ruling “appalling” and said it could undermine efforts to increase security. Arms trafficking from other states, much of it through I-95’s so-called iron pipeline, may no longer be necessary, he said.
“The iron pipeline will be the Van Wyck,” the mayor said, referring to the highway that runs through Queens. “The weapons are bought here.”
The city’s police commissioner, Keechant Sewell, warned that as long as the current law stays on the books, “If you illegally carry a gun in New York City, you’ll be arrested.”
New York has a range of rules that are not affected by the court’s decision. The SAFE Act, passed in 2013, bans assault weapons with military features, requires background checks for nearly all sales and transfers of ammunition and firearms, and prohibits people convicted of certain crimes from possessing weapons. A so-called red flag law, enacted in 2019, allows officials to request orders to take firearms away from people they believe will engage in harmful behavior.
Some New Yorkers celebrated the court’s decision. Republican candidates for Governor Lee Zeldin and Andrew Giuliani both welcomed the ruling.
Mr. Zeldin, a congressman and the presumptive favorite for the nomination, called the decision a “defense of the constitutional rights of law-abiding New Yorkers who have been under attack for far too long.”
And Andrew Chernoff, the owner of Coliseum Gun Traders in Uniondale, Long Island, said it was “more than just a pro-gun decision.”
“It has a bigger message — and the bigger message is that you can’t twist and change the Constitution as you please,” said Mr Chernoff, who has been active since 1979.
Several New York City public defenders’ organizations also supported the ruling, saying the law had previously been used to discriminate against minority clients.
“More than 90 percent of people charged with unlicensed gun ownership in New York City are black and brown,” a coalition of public defenders said in a statement. “These are the people affected by New York’s discriminatory gun licensing system, which has fueled the criminalization and incarceration of young New Yorkers of color.”
Their statement called on lawmakers to design gun regulations that would address violence without perpetuating discrimination.
But at a news conference across the street from City Hall, members of the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus said the decision will put their voters and communities at risk.
“If, in fact, anyone can get a license to buy a gun and ride it on the subway, and in our parks, in our movie theaters and at our concerts, we’re going to be in big trouble,” he said. sen. Robert Jackson.
Officials in New York were already struggling to fight gun crime. Between 2019 and 2021, the number of injured shootings in New York City doubled. And according to city and state data, the total number of shootings in 20 other areas, including Albany, Buffalo and Rochester, soared during that period.
While criminologists disagree on what caused the surge in violence, many point to disruptions caused by the pandemic and the easy flow of guns into New York from states with relaxed restrictions.
Studies have shown that the wearing of rights law is associated with higher rates of violent crime. A 2017 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that such laws were associated with as much as 15 percent “higher total violent crimes.”
Zellnor Myrie, a Democratic state senator from Brooklyn who is one of the lawmakers’ leading voices on gun violence, said the court’s decision came as he attended a graduation ceremony across from the 36th Street subway station in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park. , where 10 people attended. shot and dozens injured when a gunman opened fire aboard a train in April.
“I’m just thinking about the kids I’ve just seen graduate school, who have to live in a city, state, or country where the government chooses guns over their lives,” he said.
Dana Rubinstein† Hurubie Meko and Chelsea Rose Marcius reporting contributed.