.45 caliber guns are still prohibited on 45th Street. The United States Supreme Court gave New York a green light to interim enforcement of the Concealed Carry Improvement Act — which includes registered firearm bans in “sensitive zones” like Times Square — while the state is fighting gun advocates in court over the law’s constitutionality.
“The safety of New Yorkers is my top priority,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said. “I am pleased that this Supreme Court decision will allow us to continue enforcing the gun laws that we have put in place for this purpose. We believe these thoughtful, common-sense rules will help prevent gun violence, and we will continue to work with the New York City Attorney’s Office to protect the laws.”
“We have the right to take reasonable steps to protect our communities, and I am pleased with the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the New York Concealed Carry Gun Act,” said Attorney General Letitia James. “Too many New Yorkers are plagued by gun violence, and we know basic gun laws help save lives every day. My office will continue to use any means at our disposal to protect New Yorkers and defend our responsible gun laws.”
The Concealed Carry Improvement Act followed that of the Supreme Court Brno Decision last summer that declared unconstitutional the more than a century old New York City Concealed Carry Gun Licensing Requirements. In addition to new restrictions and screening measures for purchasing a gun, the new law also bans firearms in “sensitive zones”.
In October, Mayor Eric Adams signed a bill designating Times Square as such a zone. He cited concerns that if concealed-carrying guns were allowed, the world-famous tourist hub would be transformed into a cowboy western. Licensed guns or not, a shootout at the ‘Crossroads of the World’ puts pedestrians at risk for collateral damage. In 2021, stray bullets from two separate shootings injured several bystanders in Times Square, including a four-year-old girl.
But according to Prof. Wayne Eller, chair of the Department of Public Administration at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, recorded gun deaths are a nominal problem in New York City because it’s much easier to get hold of an illegal gun. The advent of 3D printing makes the process even easier, cheaper, and harder to understand.
“Just because laws change doesn’t mean it’s legal to own a gun in New York state, let alone the city [of] New York,” Eller said. “Just by chance, how difficult it is to just get a gun means the odds are pretty slim considering how easy it is to get one illegally… You can go the legal route, which means that you would have to go to the city you would have to pay a lot of money.
“You would have to wait a long time to get a permit for the right to buy a firearm. You would then have to go to a place where you could buy a firearm, choose a firearm, or buy that firearm assuming they had one in stock given recent demand.”
He said that because of the marginal numbers, almost no data is kept on gun death records in New York City. A CDC spokesman said that Amsterdam News that the most recent figures are not available through the agency’s National Violent Death Reporting System.
Shooting is also minimal in the Midtown South police department in Manhattan, which includes Times Square, Penn Station, Grand Central Terminal and parts of Koreatown. The New York City Police Department reported only two shootings there last year. In contrast, Brooklyn’s 73rd Police Precinct, which includes portions of the predominantly black and brown neighborhoods of Brownsville and Ocean Hill, recorded seven shootings just two weeks into 2023.
About 700,000 people, including residents, workers and tourists, move through Midtown South every day. The NYU Furman Center estimates that approximately 128,369 people lived in Brownsville in 2019. Two counties in the Bronx — the 42nd and 47th — have already surpassed 2022 shooting totals this year in Midtown South.
But Eller also doesn’t recommend designating neighborhoods prone to gun violence as “sensitive zones” under the Concealed Carry Improvement Act. For one, concealed carry bans offer law enforcement additional autonomy over reasonable suspicion and allow for potential “stop-and-frisk” procedures that historically and disproportionately affect black and brown New Yorkers. “Sensitive Zones” also fails to address the underlying causes of gun violence in New York City.
“Gun violence compares perfectly with a couple of other crime indicators, one of which is violent crime,” Eller said. “Gun violence by itself really isn’t a single mechanism, but it’s an indicator of a larger social pathology… the real problem we’re seeing in Manhattan is that we’ve lost a tremendous amount of wealth in the city during the pandemic. And we haven’t found any ways to generate new revenue for the city to replicate things like this. And the more we continue with economic inequality, the more we continue not to provide social services, [the more] that we continue to have castes of underserved citizens, all the greater [problems] we have.
“Law enforcement is important. Law and order and a regulated society are important. But so is maintaining living standards for people, and dignity and respect until we focus on making sure everyone is okay [on] the ladder.”
Last month, the New York State Comptroller’s Office found that nearly 24% of young men in New York City are unemployed, with young blacks facing higher unemployment rates than their white counterparts.
“The city must take steps to improve career opportunities for young jobseekers or the city’s economic recovery will be further stifled,” said New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. “Recovery is much slower for young workers in New York City compared to the rest of the state and country, and has had a particularly profound impact on young people of color and young men.”
Solutions to gun violence ultimately begin when the city stops treating crime — like shootings — as a phenomenon, Eller said.
“It tells us something bad is going on somewhere, whether it’s an indicator of the mental health of people like the Incels or whether it’s telling us that there [is] a class of people that we have disenfranchised in society and have no other way of coping,” he said. “There was a time in a day when we raised generations of people who couldn’t imagine living past 30 and who never saw a legitimate career path for themselves, and [we] couldn’t figure out why they wanted to steal someone else’s crap.
“It’s not rocket science and there are a lot of cases, but the solutions are difficult. And that’s the hardest part – at some point someone has to roll up their sleeves.”
Tandy Lau is a member of the Report for America Corps and writes on public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation of our RFA grant helps him write stories like this; Please consider giving a tax-deductible gift of any amount when you visit today https://bit.ly/amnews1.