In Texas, and several other states, anyone can buy a gun without a license or background check. A person can carry a gun in open view so long as it is in a holster. These are known as “open carry” laws, enabling the person carrying the weapon to have it readily accessible—like Gary Cooper in “High Noon”. Unless you are in law enforcement or have similar status, “open carry” is illegal in New York. “Concealed carry” in New York is also illegal unless someone has a special license—and in order to obtain such a license the applicant has to prove that they have “proper cause.” Not just a vague fear of violence—it has to be a genuinely credible threat against your life. For New Yorkers, that’s all about to change.

In the wake of the mass shootings in Uvalde and in Buffalo, U.S. Senators are mulling new gun laws to stop mass shootings. Last week in New York City (May 31st), seven New York City Mayors joined forces to discuss what should be done to stop gun violence in their municipalities. Meanwhile the members of U.S. Supreme Court are getting ready to hand down a decision in the case of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen which will undoubtedly declare New York’s “concealed carry” law violative of the Second Amendment and therefore unconstitutional. When Barbara Underwood, our Solicitor General, argued before that court that it would be dangerous to allow weapons to be carried on “packed subways,” Justice Samuel Alito noted that the subway is the “very place people needed arms for protection***.” However, as Ms. Underwood noted, a proliferation of guns, legal and illegal, would have an adverse effect on law enforcement: “They now can’t tell who’s shooting, if the shooting proliferates and accelerates.” I believe she is correct, we don’t need shootouts during rush hour in our crowded subways.

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