Never mind the homelessness, drug use, and routine violence … according to Empire State politicians, New York City’s transit system is a “sensitive place.” As such, law-abiding gun owners are not allowed to carry a firearm for self-defense on trains or buses or in subway or train stations – lest they impose some semblance of order on the anarchic scene.
In New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen (2022), the U.S. Supreme Court struck down New York’s discretionary carry licensing regime and made clear that the Second Amendment protects the right to carry outside the home for self-defense. In their opinion, the Court acknowledged that carry may be barred at some “sensitive places,” citing “schools and government buildings,” specifically, “legislative assemblies, polling places, and courthouses.”
Of course, whether banning firearms in these locations is sound policy is another matter. It is NRA-ILA’s position that government can demonstrate a location is in fact a “sensitive place” by providing weapons screening at all ingress points and armed security to protect those inside.
Needless to say, none of the Court’s enumerated “places” was akin to public transit. And only a delinquent government, like New York’s, allows a city’s subway system to deteriorate into a place for vagrants to domicile and soil with human excrement, while citizens just trying to reach their destinations fear for their health and safety.
Despite the Court’s command, in the wake of the Bruen case an intransigent New York set about prohibiting firearms in all manner of what the state dubiously defined as “sensitive locations.”
NY PENAL § 265.01-e. “Criminal possession of a firearm, rifle or shotgun in a sensitive location,” provides:
1. A person is guilty of criminal possession of a firearm, rifle or shotgun in a sensitive location when such person possesses a firearm, rifle or shotgun in or upon a sensitive location, and such person knows or reasonably should know such location is a sensitive location.
2. For the purposes of this section, a sensitive location shall mean:
...
(n) any place, conveyance, or vehicle used for public transportation or public transit, subway cars, train cars, buses, ferries, railroad, omnibus, marine or aviation transportation; or any facility used for or in connection with service in the transportation of passengers, airports, train stations, subway and rail stations, and bus terminals … .
Aside from the general condition of New York’s transit system, frequent horror stories serve as testament to the location’s decidedly insensitive character and the need for the law-abiding to have access to the means of self-defense.
According to an article in the New York Post, on March 10, an attacker pushed an 83-year-old U.S. Air Force veteran and grandfather and another man onto the subway tracks at a Manhattan station. The veteran was grievously wounded and died of his injuries on March 17. Police caught up with the alleged assailant at a homeless shelter.
Adding another layer to this breakdown of the social contract, the Post reported that the alleged perpetrator is an illegal immigrant and “had been deported from the US four times after entering the US illegally in 2008, but kept returning to the country illegally.” New York is a sanctuary state, and New York City is a sanctuary city.
In some jurisdictions, the demonstrated need to use a firearm to defend yourself won’t spare you from senseless gun free zone laws. According to reporting from FOX Detroit affiliate WJBK, a carry permit holder in Flint, Mich. who was involved in a justified shooting was later charged for carrying in a gun free zone.
According to the news item, the 23-year-old carry permit holder was using the restroom at Mott Community College’s Ballenger Fieldhouse when a group of men attacked him, punching him in the face several times. Local CBS affiliate WNEM reported that “[s]urveillance video and witness statements show [the victim] was grabbed, had his arms held, and was punched multiple times while the assault was being recorded on a phone.”
The carry permit holder was able to retrieve his firearm and shot one of the assailants. WJBK noted that the wounded attacker “is charged with three felonies including gang membership, assault with intent to rob while unarmed and assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder.”
The armed citizen was swiftly cleared in the shooting. Genessee County Prosecutor David Leyton told WNEM, “Based on the witness statements, his statement, and the video that accompanied it. We were able to determine that this was self-defense.”
Despite this, Leyton has now seen fit to charge the carry permit holder for illegally carrying in a gun free zone. Michigan law (M.C.L.A. 28.425o) prohibits carry in a “sports arena or stadium.” If convicted, the armed citizen faces up to a $500 fine and a six-month suspension of his carry permit.
Most outrageous, Leyton stated on local TV, “There is absolutely no good reason to bring a firearm into Ballenger Field House. It’s not allowed. If you do it, you’re gonna get charged.”
That assertion is self-evidently preposterous. Carrying a firearm in the field house may be illegal, but the facts acknowledged by Leyton’s own office in clearing the armed citizen suggest there is plenty of reasons a law-abiding individual may want to provide for his or her defense at that location.
Whether it is New York’s disordered transit system or persecuting a carry permit holder in technical violation of a gun free zone after he lawfully defends himself, gun control supporters seek put law-abiding Americans at the mercy of dangerous criminals and mindless government oppression.
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