New York State has every one of the three laws that Kamala Harris says would prevent kids from carrying out a school shooting, but the ban on so-called assault weapons, “universal” background checks, and “red flag” laws aren’t stopping students from bringing weapons onto school grounds.
Officials in Staten Island, including District Attorney Michael McMahon, held a press conference on Monday highlighting what he called a “plague” of violent crimes committed by juveniles, who apparently find it easier to get a gun than the lawful adults who are trying to navigate the maze of New York’s gun control statutes.
“Our kids are not all right. Our kids are not safe,” McMahon said. “Last week, we lived every parent’s worst nightmare on Staten Island. Four Staten Island teenagers – four – were involved in four separate incidents involving illegal guns in and around our borough schools.”
Last Wednesday, a 17-year-old boy was taken into custody after he allegedly brought a gun into Curtis High School in the St. George neighborhood. The next day, a teenager was shot at a park near Curtis and McKee High Schools. The victim survived.
While New York is tough on those trying to exercise their Second Amendment rights, forcing them undergo a lengthy process just to obtain a permit allowing them to keep a gun in their home (with an entirely separate permit for those who want to carry concealed), McMahon and other officials say the state makes it far too easy for juveniles to avoid any consequences for committing crimes.
Staten Island Borough President Vito Fosella joined McMahon and State Senator Jessica Scarcella-Spanton to call for an end to the violence. They placed some of the blame on Albany — namely bail reform and raise-the-age legislation, which has to do with the age at which juveniles can be charged as adults.
“When people feel they can get away with anything without accountability and consequence, what are they going to do? Those people will continue to do it,” Fossella said.
Scarcella-Spanton said she’s introducing legislation that would make changes to raise-the-age laws.
As we recently detailed, this isn’t an issue only in New York City’s five boroughs. Residents and business owners in Syracuse have been complaining about a group of young teens in the city who’ve repeatedly been arrested for (among other things) breaking into gun stores and leaving a trail of destruction in their wake, only to be quickly released to their parents or sent home with instructions to abide by a curfew.
An adult, however, who is caught carrying a gun without the required permit is likely to face a felony charge and the potential to spend several years in prison for the “crime” of exercising a civil right without a government-issued permission slip. And many jurisdictions in New York, including New York City, don’t make it easy for folks to apply for a permit even after the Supreme Court ruled the state’s “may issue” carry laws violated the Second Amendment rights of residents a couple of years ago.
Last July, a little more than a year after the Bruen decision came down, the website TheCity reported that the NYPD had issued fewer carry permits in 2022 than in the last year the “may issue” regime was in place. Since that report the NYPD has essentially stopped disclosing the number of permits that have been approved, denied, or are pending, according to a story from Gothamist published this March. There are ongoing lawsuits, however, alleging that the NYPD is routinely taking a year or more to approve or deny a permit application.
None of New York’s gun control laws are preventing teens from bringing guns to school, despite Kamala Harris’s claims that we only need to adopt a few “commonsense” restrictions to eradicate the threat of shootings on campus. It’s those who are trying to exercise their Second Amendment rights for lawful purposes like self-defense who are bearing the brunt of the Empire State’s anti-2A schemes.
The lawmakers responsible for the post-Bruen infringement are the same folks who adopted the raise-the-age law, so whether by accident or design, the Democrats in Albany are responsible for one thing: making it easier and quicker to illegally get a pistol than it is to acquire one while staying within the boundaries of state law.
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