New York City Shooting Shows Dangers of This ‘Gun-Free Zone’

The few New York City residents who’ve been able to obtain a license to carry are still prohibited from lawfully carrying throughout much of the five boroughs, including on public transportation. Just a few days ago a Second Circuit Court of Appeals panel upheld that “gun-free zone”, declaring that “prohibiting firearms in quintessentially crowded places” is part of the national tradition of gun ownership. 

We’ve already detailed the fundamental flaws in that opinion, but this week there was a real-world example of why it’s such a bad idea to prohibit lawful concealed carry on public transportation and in public transportation hubs. 

 An off-duty New York City police officer shot a man in Penn Station in Manhattan who attempted to rob her and another officer on Wednesday evening, the police said.

The two off-duty officers were waiting in plain clothes for the train on a Long Island Rail Road platform when a man attempted to rob them around 7 p.m., a Police Department spokesman said. The police identified him on Thursday as Jahmar Stewart, 32.

One of the officers pulled out her firearm and shot Mr. Stewart in the arm, the spokesman said. He was hospitalized in stable condition on Wednesday night. The officers sustained minor injuries.

This was apparently the third attempted robbery of off-duty police officers in the Big Apple within a week-long span, but that’s just a very small portion of the total number of robberies in NYC during that same time period. 

I’m glad that these off-duty officers were able to protect themselves, and I’m thankful that they only suffered minor injuries in the attack. Still, why should off-duty law enforcement be the only ones who can protect themselves with a firearm in these dangerous environments?  

According to the New York Post, Stewart has a number of arrests to his name this year, including one in August. 

Stewart, whose last known address is a Brooklyn homeless shelter, was most recently arrested on Aug. 8 for allegedly attacking another resident at the facility on Albany Avenue, police said.

The 43-year-old victim was gathering his belongings around 11:15 p.m. when he got into an argument with Stewart, who slugged him multiple times, according to police.

The victim was taken to the Kings County Hospital Center for treatment of scratches to his face and shoulder, cops said.

The top charge in that case was third-degree assault, which is not bail-eligible, and Stewart was released on his own recognizance, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office. 

Stewart was also arrested and charged with menacing back in July for allegedly threatening another resident at the homeless shelter with a knife, but was released on his own recognizance. That was also what happened when Stewart was arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault in June, after allegedly hitting another resident in the head with a tree branch. 

New York’s soft-on-crime policies are routinely returning violent suspects to the streets within hours of their arrests, even when they’re already facing charges from a previous arrest. At the same time, the NYPD is slow-walking the issuance of concealed carry permits. In fact, the department won’t even say how many permits have been issued this year, but there are ongoing lawsuits featuring plaintiffs who have waited a year or more to receive their carry permit. 

In some cases, litigants have been awarded their permits only after they’ve filed suit, which is another problem entirely. You shouldn’t have to hire an attorney or threaten a lawsuit to exercise a fundamental civil right, but that appears to be the case in New York City right now… unless you’re willing to wait a year or two before being able to legally bear arms. 

Now, these issues are separate from the numerous “gun-free zones” that New York City has established, including public transportation. There’s virtually no chance of legislative relief in New York, but in addition to the Frey case challenging the public transportation ban in the Second Circuit, the Koons/Siegal liigation in the Third Circuit deals in part with New Jersey’s carry ban on public transportation. There’s also a Seventh Circuit case called Schoenthal v. Raoul, and earlier this month a three-judge panel reversed a lower court and upheld the ban. 

That’s the case that is most likely to get to the Supreme Court first, but if SCOTUS turns it away there will be other opportunities for the justices to weigh in and address the Second Circuit’s argument that virtually all crowded public spaces can be off-limits to lawful carry. Unfortunately, like with the lawsuits challenging bans on so-called assault weapons, it could be a term or two before the Court deals directly with this particular “gun-free zone”. In the meantime, straphangers in places like New York, Chicago, and Charlotte remain at risk from violent predators riding the rails, and are prohibited from exercising their Second Amendment right to armed self-defense.

Editor’s Note: The radical left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

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