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NY leaders already scheming way around SCOTUS gun ruling, to deem whole cities ‘sensitive locations’

June 24, 2022 | | Print Article

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision affecting New York’s gun licensing and concealed carry laws has city and state officials scrambling.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams, among other New York Democrats, are reportedly already looking for ways to preserve some gun restrictions after the U.S. high court delivered a stunning 6-3 ruling eliminating part of a century-old state law.

“We are prepared to set an example that will lead the country as to how do we fight back on this decision?” Adams, a former police officer, said, according to Daily Mail, after the court struck down the law’s requirement that those wishing to purchase a firearm show “proper cause,” and demonstrate a need for wanting to get a license to carry a handgun.

“We have a whole lot of ideas,” Hochul said of the plans already underway to counter the effects of the ruling. The governor is reportedly considering calling a special session in the Democrat-led legislature, prompting a show of support from Adams who said, “We cannot allow New York to become the Wild West.”

“We are already working with partners on ways to undo or mitigate the damage of today’s reckless and irresponsible decision,” Adams tweeted.

The New York City Council is also looking for a workaround after the Supreme Court decision, reportedly looking at ways to add to the list of the city’s “sensitive locations” where guns can be banned.

New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams “plans to pass a non-binding resolution that would call on Albany to ban guns from all government buildings, schools, hospitals, places of worship, parks, daycares and cemeteries and other facilities — and establish a 1,000 foot buffer around those places where guns would also be banned,” the New York Post reported.

“We are formally and proactively presenting this idea to the state legislature because the threat to New York City is so very serious,” the Democrat said. “We’re urging the state to ensure that as many places where children and vulnerable populations are present, including the subway, be designated as sensitive areas.”

Part of the focus is also to make “population density a criteria for establishing a ‘sensitive location,’” according to the Post which noted that the councilmember effectively affirmed that the goal of the efforts was to once again create “an effective citywide gun ban blanket.”

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas cited two previous gun cases in delivering the court’s decision Thursday.

“In this case, petitioners and respondents agree that ordinary, law-abiding citizens have a similar right to carry handguns publicly for their self-defense. We too agree, and now hold, consistent with Heller and McDonald, that the Second and Fourteenth Amendments protect an individual’s right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home,” Thomas wrote.

“Because the State of New York issues public-carry licenses only when an applicant demonstrates a special need for self-defense, we conclude that the State’s licensing regime violates the Constitution,” he added. “The constitutional right to bear arms in public for self-defense is not a second-class right, subject to an entirely different body of rules than the other Bill of Rights guarantees.”

President Joe Biden expressed that he was “deeply disappointed” in the Supreme Court ruling, saying in a statement: “More than a century later, the United States Supreme Court has chosen to strike down New York’s long-established authority to protect its citizens. This ruling contradicts both common sense and the Constitution, and should deeply trouble us all.”

Frieda Powers
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