(Daily Mail) New York governor Kathy Hochul is looking for creative ways preserve restrictions against carrying a handgun in public after the US Supreme Court struck down key portions of the state’s gun-licensing and concealed carry laws.
State and New York City officials are zeroing in on specifying ‘sensitive locations’ where concealed weapons could be forbidden, including a concept that would essentially extend those zones to the entire metropolis.
Other options under consideration include adding new conditions to get a handgun permit, such as requiring weapons.
Hochul, a Democrat, vowed to call the Democrat-led legislature back for a special session to pass new rules.
‘We have a whole lot of ideas,’ she said, adding that she discussed policy options Thursday with the mayors of the state’s six largest cities.
New York City mayor Eric Adams supported expressed support for Hocul’s efforts, saying ‘We cannot allow New York to become the Wild West.’
New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, also a Democrat, said state lawmakers should ban people from carrying handguns in any place containing more than 10,000 people per square mile, or anywhere within 1,000 feet of mass transit systems, hospitals, parks, government buildings, schools, churches, cemeteries, banks, theaters bars, libraries, homeless shelters and courts.
That would effectively include the whole city.
While it’s not yet clear what might come of the discussions, what was clear was the sense of urgency that New York’s Democratic leadership feels about retaining some curbs on guns in public places.
The officials argue that such restrictions are life-saving: statistics show the state, and its biggest city, consistently have among the nation’s lowest firearm death rates.
‘We are prepared to set an example that will lead the country as to: how do we fight back on this decision?’ said New York Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat and a former police officer and gun owner.
New York, like many other U.S. cities, has contended with rising concern about violent crime, though New York City police statistics show shootings have declined about 12 per cent and murders 13 per cent so far this year, compared with the same period last year. But murders remain at their second-highest level since 2012.
The high court opinion comes shortly after New York state tightened semi-automatic rifle regulations following a May 14 shooting in Buffalo, where a white gunman with such a weapon killed 10 Black people in a racist attack. Officials said the gun was purchased legally, but New York doesn’t allow sales of the ammunition magazines that were used.
As state leaders reacted to Thursday’s ruling, Republican Chairman Nick Langworthy said it was ‘disgusting yet highly predictable’ that Hochul and other Democrats ‘are trying to gin up fear and division over a legal gun owner’s right to protect themselves and their family.’
Rep. Lee Zeldin, a Republican candidate for governor, tweeted that Hochul ‘better not make her next move on this another assault on law-abiding NYers.’
