NYC Mayor Adams Passes Gun Ban In Times Square Amid Legal Challenges

Topline

New York City Mayor Eric Adams signed two city bills Tuesday prohibiting guns in Times Square, one week after a federal judge temporarily blocked the state’s latest attempt at curbing concealed carry in “sensitive areas” such as the crowded Manhattan tourist spot.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams signed a bill on Tuesday prohibiting concealed carry in Times Square.

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Key Facts

The two bills prohibit the concealed carry of firearms within Times Square, which it designates as a “sensitive location,” and requires city officials to submit a study and annual report monitoring illegal gun trafficking in the city.

The bill comes one week after a federal judge temporarily blocked parts of the state’s concealed carry law that established strict background checks for concealed carry licenses and created “sensitive locations” where firearms are forbidden—including Times Square, as well as hospitals, schools and public transportation—ruling provisions in the law are unenforceable and unconstitutional.

It’s the city’s latest foray into gun control measures in crowded places, four months after the Supreme Court struck down the state’s previous concealed carry law requiring “proper cause” to obtain a license, arguing it violated gun carriers’ Second and Fourth Amendment rights by keeping “law-abiding citizens” from being able to defend themselves.

Adams’ bills apply strictly to Times Square in Manhattan, prohibiting all concealed carry, even if a gun owner has a permit to do so.

It comes one day after New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a motion to keep the state’s gun law, called the Concealed Carry Improvement Act, in effect during the litigation process, calling the measure a “commonsense gun control legislation.”

What We Don’t Know

Whether the city ban will be appealed. Although municipalities can pass gun laws that are stricter than state laws, some citywide gun control laws have been struck down on appeal. One was a 2008 Supreme Court decision that blocked a Washington, D.C., law banning handguns, although former Justice Antonin Scalia said in his majority opinion the ruling should not “cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms,” including laws forbidding open carry in sensitive places “such as schools and government buildings.”

Key Background

In addition to schools, hospitals and public transportation, the state’s blocked gun law also applied to airports, bars, courthouses, polling places, rallies, houses of worship and stadiums. Last week, U.S. District Judge Glenn T. Suddaby sided with plaintiffs—six members of the Second Amendment group Gun Owners of America—ruling the law’s background checks on social media platforms and a requirement for “character references” to attest to a gun carrier’s “good moral character” were unenforceable. In his decision, Suddaby said the law reads like a “wish list of exercise-inhibiting restrictions glued together by a severability clause.” It’s the most recent challenge to the law. In a previous lawsuit in August, Suddaby said parts of the law are unconstitutional, but dismissed the case, arguing plaintiffs did not have legal standing because the law had not yet gone into effect.

Big Number

“Millions of New Yorkers and tourists flock to Times Square to see Broadway shows, enjoy a good meal and take photos of the neon billboards, and we will not allow them to live in fear or distrust that someone is walking around with a gun ready to harm them,” Adams said.

Crucial Quote

1,052. That’s how many people died in gun-related deaths in the state of New York in 2020, roughly 5.3 per 100,000 people, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New York City officials and state officials have been attempting to crack down on firearm mortality for decades, using several initiatives, including a program to seize firearms in New York City, where the police department has seized more than 5,600 so far this year, as of the end of September.