B.L.U.F. Some of the media understands that the NYS CCIA is an overreach that accomplishes nothing.

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.

There are a number of pundits talking about knee-jerk responses by the different states. The states that created a spaghetti bowl of new laws to throw at the wall. The states that created “Kill carry” bills which make it easier to get a CCW but which makes it almost impossible to actually carry anywhere.

The responses are starting to fall into a few categories:

• Sensitive Places
• Good Moral Character
• Prove you are a responsible law abiding citizen
• Expanded training that isn’t available
• Costs increases.
• Attempting to flip who has to prove history and tradition
• That particular thing isn’t covered under the second amendment because it isn’t an “arm” or it is “exceptionally dangerous”

Nobody wants to hear it in the era of “decarceration” and “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: In Philadelphia, 61% of gun cases are dismissed without charges or trial, up from less than 30% as recently as 2016.

Yep, right on target there. If you put the bad guys in jail, they aren’t going to be doing bad things to us.

Of the 4,456 gun arrests NYPD made in 2021, there was at last count one (not a typo!) conviction at trial and far more dismissals (983) than plea deals (698). Statistically speaking, the most likely thing to happen after an arrest for illegally carrying a gun in New York is … nothing.

Imagine that, nearly 4.5 thousand people were arrested in NYC for violating some part of their gun laws in 2021 (pre Bruen) yet only one was taken to trial and convicted.

It is highly likely that the poor saps that did end up being punished after a gun arrest were mostly law abiding, people that caught up by the police because ???.

It reminds me of the stories of construction workers being stopped and frisked. Their pocket knives were found. The cops then did a “flick test” where they attempted to open the knife one handed. If they were able to do so, they worker was jacked up on a weapons violation.

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. Celebrities such as Steven Seagal and Joan Rivers were issued licenses, but ordinary New Yorkers long found it nearly impossible to get one. 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.”

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. Celebrities such as Steven Seagal and Joan Rivers were issued licenses, but ordinary New Yorkers long found it nearly impossible to get one. 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.”

And here is our words echoed back to us:

The license-holders are not the problem. The criminals are.

A new solution for New York’s gun problems: Enforcement and punishment

As legislators reconsider New York’s concealed weapons laws, more thought should be given to both preventing crime and issuing licenses equitably.