Hochul calls Supreme Court concealed carry ruling 'reckless and reprehensible'

June 06, 2022- Bronx NY- Governor Kathy Hochul signs new gun legislation into law, raising the age to purchase semi-automatic weapons to 21 as well as other measures to help stop gun violence (Don Pollard - Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)

The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down New York’s restrictions on carrying a concealed weapon in public spaces. Governor Kathy Hochul calls the decision “reckless and reprehensible.”

The case, brought by the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, took issue with New York’s laws, on the books since the early 1900s, that made it a crime to possess a firearm without a license, and that required anyone who wanted to carry a concealed firearm outside the home to obtain an additional permit. They could only receive one if they could prove that “proper cause exists” for them to carry the weapon.

The opinion, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, finds that the law violates the US constitution, and prevents law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their Second and Fourteenth Amendment rights to keep and bear arms in public for self-defense.

Governor Kathy Hochul, speaking moments after the ruling, called it deeply disturbing, and said it puts the safety of “millions of New Yorkers” at risk.

Hochul condemned what she said is the “insanity of gun culture” that has now reached even the Supreme Court. She said the timing is especially difficult when people in Buffalo are grieving over a mass shooting in May that killed 10 people at a supermarket in an African-American neighborhood.  

She said her staff attorneys are working with leaders of the legislature to craft a remedy to the decision and will announce details soon.

“We are not powerless,” Hochul said.

The decision came as Hochul held a bill signing ceremony for “Alyssa’s Law”.  It requires school districts to consider installing panic alarms so that school officials and students can immediately alert police if there’s a life-threatening incident, including a mass shooting, at their school. It is named after Alyssa Alhadeff, a 14-year-old who was killed in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida in 2018.

It comes just a few weeks after Hochul and the legislature approved a number of gun safety laws, including banning anyone under 21 from buying a semi-automatic rifle and strengthening the state’s Red Flag laws.

Law enforcement is now required to ask a judge for an order to seize the guns of anyone they think might be a threat to themselves or others.

Hochul and lawmakers also made it illegal to purchase body armor, except for law enforcement and people in professions that could be in danger. Other new laws require gun manufacturers to allow for the microstamping of bullets, to better trace weapons used in the commission of crimes.

North Country Representative Elise Stefanik praised the Court’s decision. “Today’s Supreme Court ruling upholds the Constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms and correctly declares New York’s shameful attempt to shred Second Amendment rights of New Yorkers unconstitutional,” Stefanik said in a statement released shortly after the ruling was announced.

The state’s Conservative Party praised the Court’s decision, saying, in a statement, that it’s a “step in the right direction for millions of Americans who’ve been arbitrarily denied their Constitutional right to self-protection for decades”, and that the ruling will “give law-abiding New Yorkers the option of protecting themselves with a firearm in a state with significant crime issues”.

Hochul said she will call the legislature back into session in the coming weeks to address the issue.

 

 

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