The Issue: The Supreme Court’s consideration of a case involving New York’s concealed carry laws.
Police Commissioner Dermot Shea stated that if the Supreme Court strikes down the New York Pistol Licensing Statute, it will “open the floodgates” to violence (“Shea sees Supreme gun peril,” Nov. 11).
What he’s overlooking is that the main focus of the pending case is the New York law requiring the applicant to show a “need” to carry a weapon outside the home or business. That requirement has been regularly misinterpreted and/or abused.
The licensing process should be a careful investigation of the applicant’s history, stability and competence to own and carry a weapon, not the subjective determination of why he needs it — other than to protect himself or his family.
We all know already that the licensing process in New York City has done nothing to stem gun violence and never will.
Sidney Baumgarten
Manhattan
The case before the Supreme Court concerning the right to carry pistols in public is stirring ignorance and hysteria.
It’s not about the public having the right to freely go about armed. It’s about law-abiding citizens, already vetted and licensed, having the right to carry pistols without having to show extraordinary need.
Ron Wasserman
Freehold, NJ
The “top cop” must know better. The problem in New York City is not caused by legal gun owners. Crime is caused by criminals, and very often repeat offenders.
In the landmark case of DeShaney v. Winnebago County Department of Social Services in 1989, the Supreme Court held that the failure by government workers to protect someone from physical violence or harm from another person did not breach any substantive constitutional duty.
So much for expecting the police to protect. Citizens must have the right and the ability protect themselves and their own property.
Thomas Birnbaum
Manhattan
As our Supreme Court hears arguments on the constitutionality of New York’s strict gun laws, Justice Amy Coney Barrett questioned whether there should be prohibitions on guns in “sensitive places” (“Have the Supremes Ever Been to NYC?” Nicole Gelinas, PostOpinion, Nov. 8).
This is entirely irrelevant to the issue of the constitutionality of New York’s statute.
While present New York gun laws may provide non-carry licenses to keep a gun inside your home for protection, you generally have a phone and time to call for help at home.
In street encounters, you do not have time to call police. A decent, responsible citizen should have the right to be his or her own last line of self-defense with a concealed-carry license.
Stanley Rubin
Fresh Meadows
Gun-related homicides in New York City have increased exponentially in recent years. Commissioner Shea: How well are the current gun laws in New York City working for you?
To make it virtually impossible for law-abiding citizens to conceal/carry while having a revolving-door policy for illegal firearm possession and usage in New York City is both ludicrous and immoral.
It’s about time the law in New York stopped empowering criminals and instead protected the constitutional rights of all to be safe and to be able to lawfully protect themselves, their families and their property.
Karl Olsen
Watervliet
I think Shea is wrong to fear more violence due to an “infusion of additional guns on the streets of New York City.”
Citizens who pass background checks and who legally purchase and own guns should not be equated with gangbangers and criminals.
The right to defend yourself and your family is a fundamental one. People do not feel safe on the streets of New York City. Licensed gun owners have historically rarely been involved in gun misuse or violence.
The street riots in 2020 showed that police cannot adequately protect individuals in a mob protest.
Robert Mangi
Westbury
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