Eric Adams and New York City brace for Supreme Court concealed carry ruling

The mayor said he’s already reaching out across the country and plans to put together a national working group to look at where cities can create no-carry zones: government designated safe-zones, or sensitive spaces, where concealed carry would still be restricted, even after licensing approval.

“Because we don’t believe the Supreme Court is going to take up that aspect of it,” Adams said. “We believe there’s room for us to say, ‘Ok, here’s where you can’t carry: subway systems, schools,’ we could restrict, ‘Ok, you no longer need a license, well here’s the restrictions of where you can’t carry.’”

“That is what we’re putting together right now as a Plan B,” Adams said. “Plan A is for them not to pass it.”

But constitutional experts and criminal justice professionals are divided on the legal barriers Adams’ backup plan will encounter if the court strikes down the state’s existing restrictions.

“I think the court will incorrectly decide that there’s a constitutional right to carry a concealed weapon, which would be the most dramatic change to gun-control laws ever, at least in the last 150 years,” said Richard Aborn, president of the Citizens Crime Commission, a criminal justice research nonprofit, and former Manhattan Assistant District Attorney. “The question is whether the court gives states and localities some leeway to regulate carry and concealed weapons in sensitive places.”

Technical case
 

“What constitutes ‘good cause’ is the nub of the case,” said Joseph Blocher, constitutional law professor at Duke University Law School. “New York courts have interpreted this to mean some heightened need for self-defense above and beyond the average person—you have a stalker or are a victim of a crime—but it’s not specifically spelled out.”

Because of the lack of specifics in the existing New York law, constitution experts believe the court will likely rule against some—if not all—aspects of the state’s existing concealed carry laws in Bruen.

Blocher admitted that, “There’s a lot of different ways the justices can go.” Jeffrey Fagan, a second amendment professor at Columbia Law School, said that he doesn’t think that Gov. Kathy Hochul’s new executive orders placing age restrictions on long gun purchases and requiring enhanced background checks should be affected by the potential reversal of precedent.

“It’s hard to speculate on legal options without knowing the constraints or wiggle room that the Bruen opinion will create,” Fagan said. “It’s a difficult situation, and as a lifelong New Yorker, it makes me very concerned.”

Violent time
 

There is a likelihood that overturning concealed carry restrictions will lead to increased levels of gun violence across the city—notably in commercial business districts or in places like the subway system.

The mayor implied that fears about public safety will filter throughout the private sector and impact the economy—notably the willingness of workers to travel into their city offices.

“Every group from our Partnership [for New York City] to others, they continually hear from their employees: public safety on the transportation system,” Adams said. “Covid has dissipated with people being fearful of Covid and has been replaced with our subway system.”

Many New Yorkers have been left shaken by outbursts in deadly shootings and gun violence . Last month Daniel Enriquez, a Goldman Sachs employee, was shot dead while riding the Q train in an unprovoked attack. Frank James was charged in April with committing a terrorist attack on an N train in Brooklyn after a man opened fire on passengers , injuring 10 people from gun shots.

Overall citywide shootings incidents have increased by 47% from two years ago, and citywide shooting victims have reached 656 this year, a nearly 50% increase from two years ago, according to the most recent city police data.

“During a time of rising gun violence, [overturning concealed carry] is absolutely the worst thing you can do,” Aborn said. “It would be like taking vials of the Covid virus and injecting them into the atmosphere during the height of the pandemic.”

Scary implications
 

Gun violence incidents have risen in states that have overturned concealed carry restrictions.

Eric Ruben, a second amendment expert at Southern Methodist University and fellow at the NYU Brennan Institute for Justice, said that although the policy area is highly contested, “research from top empiricists has concluded that loosening concealed carry standards is associated with an increase in aggregate violent crime.”

Ruben pointed to a 2018 study by John Donohue at Stanford University, who found that right-to-carry laws adopted by states are associated with a 13%-to-15% increase in violent crime rates ten years after adoption.

“The same thing could happen in New York,” Blocher said. “What you’ll see is almost inevitable: more guns in public places and it’s hard not to see how that can translate into more public gun violence.”

Even if the Adams administration establishes gun-free safe zones in public places across the city like schools, subways, stadiums and parks, it’s unclear how the Supreme Court will rule on the subsequent litigation that will likely be brought against these new restrictions.

“Litigation is almost certain about the sensitive places drawn up by city and state,” Ruben said. “Right now, there’s very little guidance on how much discretion policymakers have in deciding sensitive places.”

Ruben noted that during oral arguments in the Bruen case, some judges seemed to cast doubt on whether the subway could be defined as a sensitive place to carry a gun and that Justice Samuel Alito “seemed to sense that a subway restriction would go too far.”

Aborn said it’s possible that the Supreme Court ruling may not even give localities the right to define sensitive places to limit concealed carry and that the court may find certain, space-specific regulations place an undue burden on the constitutional right to carry.

But he also pointed out sensitive places do exist in society, even to the Justices.

“Try to carry a concealed gun on the floor of the Supreme Court. Watch what happens to you then,” he added. “It’s full of contradictions.”