New York City has a longstanding hostility toward the right to keep and bear arms. Having guns in the city has never been easy and it’s been even harder to carry them. Even after Bruen, it’s no picnic, but it’s at least hypothetically possible.
But there were a lot of rules in place that made it impossible for anyone from outside New York to carry in the city. Considering that it’s a major tourist destination and that it’s got a crime problem, that’s a big issue.
They were looking at a lawsuit to challenge the rules as they currently stood, but changed to try and avoid it.
And Newsweek covered the change. Well, most of it, but we’ll get to that in a moment.
Gun law changes in New York City are opening up the path for nonresidents to carry firearms across the state.
The New York City Police Department adopted an emergency rule last week that will allow nonresidents to apply for concealed carry permits through the city, a move that could create a backdoor for out-of-state residents to carry their guns in the state.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams signed the changes into law last Tuesday, allowing for nonresidents to file carry applications in the city. Prior to the new order, NYPD rules did not contain formal procedures for applicants who do not live in New York or applicants who are primarily employed in New York City. The state also does not grant any form of reciprocity for individuals who hold a similar permit from another state.
Newsweek reached out to Adams and New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s offices via email for comment.
Sounds swell.
However, they didn’t note that there’s a big problem with the new measure. In particular, it only pays lip service to the idea of anyone from outside the city carrying a firearm lawfully.
As we noted over the weekend, the new rules require a sit-down interview with the NYPD face-to-face.
That’s not a huge barrier if you’re just across the river in New Jersey, but if you’re from Iowa and looking to spend a few weeks in the Big Apple, it’s just not practical. Especially since this isn’t an instant process. If it were, you could theoretically plan your meeting for day one of your trip, get your permit, and be good to go, but that’s not how it works.
And no one is going to plan a trip to New York from multiple states away just to get a permit for their actual vacation.
Of course, Newsweek touches on none of this. Then again, this is meant to be simple journalism. They don’t have a lot of reactions from different people about the measure, so it wouldn’t. They quote GOA’s Erich Pratt, who is happy with the win–and understandably so–but didn’t really get into how it’s still a bit of an issue in his official statements.
So it’s possible that this was just something they weren’t ever going to touch on because they were simply reporting on the event it self and why the rules were changed and nothing else.
But I don’t feel like giving anyone any slack because this is, ultimately, of little benefit to anyone except New York City because it lets them get out from under the lawsuit.
