“Gun Free Zone” – New York is doing everything it can to keep people from carrying guns despite Supreme Court ruling

The radical leftists in New York state are making many public spaces a ‘gun free zone’, including the area in New York City known as ‘Times Square’, in order to prevent people from carrying firearms with their concealed carry permits.

This is despite a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that stopped the state from requiring ‘proper cause’ to get a concealed carry license.

Here’s more via Newsmax:

Amid the bright lights and electronic billboards across New York’s Times Square, city authorities are posting new signs proclaiming the bustling crossroads a “Gun Free Zone.”

The sprawling Manhattan tourist attraction is one of scores of “sensitive” places — including parks, churches and theaters — that will be off limits for guns under a sweeping new state law going into effect Thursday. The measure, passed after a U.S. Supreme Court decision in June expanded gun rights, also sets stringent standards for issuing concealed carry permits.

New York is among a half-dozen states that had key provisions of its gun laws invalidated by the high court because of a requirement for applicants to prove they had “proper cause” for a permit. Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday that she and her fellow Democrats in the state Legislature took action the next week because the ruling “destroyed the ability for a governor to be able to protect her citizens from people who carry concealed weapons anywhere they choose.”

The quickly adopted law, however, has led to confusion and court challenges from gun owners who say it improperly limits their constitutional rights.

“They seem to be designed less towards addressing gun violence and more towards simply preventing people from getting guns — even if those people are law-abiding, upstanding citizens, who according to the Supreme Court have the rights to have them,” said Jonathan Corbett, a Brooklyn attorney and permit applicant who is one of several people challenging the law in court.

Under the law, applicants for a concealed carry permit will have to complete 16 hours of classroom training and two hours of live-fire exercises. Ordinary citizens would be prohibited from bringing guns to schools, churches, subways, theaters and amusement parks — among other places deemed “sensitive” by authorities.

Applicants also will have to provide a list of social media accounts for the past three years as part of a “character and conduct” review. The requirement was added because shooters have sometimes dropped hints of violence online before they opened fire on people.

The list of prohibited spaces for carrying guns has drawn criticism from advocates who say it’s so extensive it will make it difficult for people with permits to move about in public. People carrying a gun could go into private business only with permission, such as a sign posted on the window.

What they are doing is really two-fold. Not only are they making many spaces ‘gun free zones’, but we told you before that they are creating more stringent requirements to get a concealed carry permit, which include three years of social media history and four character references. And now we see the state is adding to that 16 hours of gun training with two more hours of live-fire training.

The training isn’t that big of a deal, but the three years of social media history is and it will create a serious backlog for local sheriffs trying to process these permits:

Sheriffs in some upstate counties said the additional work for their investigators could add to existing backlogs in processing applications.

In Rochester, Monroe County Sheriff Todd Baxter said it currently takes two to four hours to perform a pistol permit background check on a “clean” candidate. He estimate the new law will add another one to three hours for each permit. The county has about 600 pending pistol permits.

“It’s going to slow everything down just a bit more,” he said.

In the Mohawk Valley, Fulton County Sheriff Richard C. Giardino had questions on how the digital sleuthing would proceed.

“It says three years worth of your social media. We’re not going to print out three years of social media posts by everybody. If you look at my Facebook, I send out six or 10 things a day,” said the sheriff, a former district attorney and judge.

What the leftists in New York state are doing is absurd and I hope the court challenges to these ‘gun free zones’ will be successful. Governor Hochul promised she would fight back against the decision this summer to keep as many people from carrying guns as possible. And that’s exactly what she’s doing. I hope when it comes to the ultimate decision on this, whatever federal court rules on this takes into consideration the motives behind this anti-2nd amendment garbage.


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