Kevin Williamson: A New Solution for New York’s Gun Problems: Enforcement and Punishment

One of the great stupidities of New York’s current gun-law debate is that existing laws merely required a couple of tweaks for them to prove effective — nowhere more so than in the need for a license-to-carry rule based on objective criteria rather than bias and favoritism. 

New York could have a sensible and effective gun-regulation regime — one that honors Second Amendment rights while recognizing that New York is not Wyoming. And this could happen tomorrow — if only local leaders had something in their heads besides gubernatorial ambitions.

New York’s old gun-control laws, rooted in the infamous Sullivan Act of 1911, had one excellent feature: If you got caught carrying a gun illegally, you went to jail. Enforcement was rigorous — no matter if you were a wannabe gangster in The Bronx or Super Bowl star Plaxico Burress, who served 20 months for his armed shenanigans.

In the age of “No one wants it to be heard”, “decarceration” “depolicing,” but one of the major problems facing crime-ridden Democrat-run cities is that many firearms offenses — short of murder — now go largely unpunished: Philadelphia has 61% gun cases that are dismissed without trial or charges. This is up from 30% in 2016. 

NYPD made 4,456 gun arrests in 2021. There were far fewer dismissals (983) and convictions at trial than there were plea bargains (698). Statistics show that the most likely outcome of an illegally carrying gun arrest in New York City is. . . nothing.

Criminals have it easy. But New York makes it difficult for law-abiding citizens get a permit to carry.

The problem with New York City’s license-to-carry law was never that it was too strict — it was that it was arbitrary and favored the connected. While celebrities like Joan Rivers and Steven Seagal were granted licenses, ordinary New Yorkers found it difficult to obtain one for many years. This wasn’t a matter of responsible gun ownership — asked in 2003 about the concealed-carry permit he had secured during his mayoral candidacy four decades earlier, William F. Buckley Jr. replied: “I have my pistol permit in my wallet, and no one knows where the gun is.” 

New York seems to be unable to accept any subjective standard. Before last year’s Bruen case — which declared New York State’s licensing practices unconstitutional — it was “proper cause,” It is now “good moral character,” Another vague standard is likely be disregarded by the courts. New York needs one standard that applies to all.

Lawful carry doesn’t seem to have much impact on crime one way or another. Half of US states don’t require licenses to carry. The Florida legislature began efforts in January to be the latest. Some of these “constitutional carry” Mobile, Ala. is a high-crime area. Some states, like Vermont, have very low levels of violent crime. Either way, concealed carry rules appear to have little impact on violent crime — New Hampshire, with its free-wheeling carry laws, has almost the same crime rate as neighboring Massachusetts, where restrictions are far tighter. New York probably would not see much change in crime even with more libertarian licensing rules — criminals do not apply for permits.

New York must have a clear licensing system, strict enforcement, and real jail time for anyone carrying a gun illegally. Instead of focusing solely on criminals the state is imposing time and place restrictions on permit holders. These restrictions are legal and reasonable in theory. It is reasonable to prohibit guns from Times Square and City Hall Park.  

The problem is that, in practice, New York wants to use these measures as a backdoor to general prohibition: New York’s new post-Bruen law bans firearms from basically all public places (including public transit) unless an establishment has proactively declared itself gun-friendly. Although this will cause inconvenience to license holders, criminals are unlikely not to comply. Many New Yorkers will recall Times Square being crowded with drug dealers and hookers in the 1980s, even though these were illegal. Criminals will not follow the gun-permit holders’ rules. Criminality will not be reduced by giving rule-followers more rules.

Enforcement is key. If the powers that be want to prohibit the means of self-defense on the New York subways, then they should think about trying to make those subways secure— which they manifestly are not today.

License-holders are not the problem. Criminals are.