OPINION:
Shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court issued its 2022 ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the Concealed Carry Improvement Act. The governor responded to the landmark 6-to-3 ruling, which determined the Second Amendment’s guarantee of the right to keep and bear arms extends to protecting people who wish to carry a weapon in public by enforcing a series of invasive pistol restrictions prohibiting the carrying of guns in a host of public locations labeled “sensitive.”
Among the no-gun zones under the law are places of worship, casinos, bars, subways and Times Square. In a state plagued by crime and repeated scenes of rallies valorizing terrorism, the Concealed Carry Improvement Act undermines the safety of lawful citizens and New York’s Jewish population, which is experiencing a spike in antisemitic incidents.
Earlier this year, a New York Police Department report confirmed that the city’s five boroughs saw an antisemitic event every 36 hours, with that figure surging since the Oct. 7 terrorist massacre in Israel by Hamas. A Siena College poll released this month also found that 73% of New York voters believe Jews in the state are experiencing a “great deal or some” antisemitism.
While perhaps well intentioned, Mrs. Hochul’s recent announcement of $75 million in extra security funding for religious institutions and grant money to help police solve hate crimes renders New Yorkers at the mercy of the government for protection. The state is also home to lax criminal justice laws and retains some of the most restrictive gun regulations in the country, leaving Jewish Americans ill-equipped to defend themselves.
Moreover, solving anti-Jewish crime cases does little to address a permissive criminal culture, which leaves perpetrators of antisemitic assaults greeting a progressive justice system once caught for their offenses. Absent armed protection, law-abiding New Yorkers are powerless to defend themselves against the risk that the chorus of hate-fueled mobs will carry out their intimidating calls for death and destruction.
The shrinking liberties of innocent New Yorkers and expansive comforts for criminals imperil the security of upstanding citizens while emboldening those threatening the welfare of decent people.
Along with stringent laws limiting where guns can be carried, civilians living in deep blue enclaves such as Westchester County face a burdensome bureaucratic haze and a wait time of over a year to obtain a pistol license. That’s little comfort to the approximately 1.5 million Jewish New Yorkers, many of whom are seeking protection against an intensifying cadre of violent antisemites.
In many instances, offenders live near the city’s sizable observant Jewish community, for whom the lack of protective features cedes firm control to the criminals. Orthodox Jews abstain from using vehicles on the Sabbath and many holidays. Along with wearing traditional Jewish clothing, those practicing religious streams of Judaism walk to the synagogue.
In the days preceding the Oct. 28 “Flood Brooklyn for Gaza” rally, which fell on a Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, NYPD warnings to the city’s religious residents to avoid the area were broadcast above assurances of bolstering police presence.
The NYPD’s language leading up to thousands of pro-Hamas demonstrators streaming across city neighborhoods speaks to the fanatical currents running through the state. What’s more, efforts illustrating commitments to curb crime through boosting police presence are tempered by troubling news of significant reductions in the NYPD’s force due to citywide budget cuts.
To their credit, Republican Reps. Elise Stefanik and Claudia Tenney of New York recently reintroduced legislation condemning Mrs. Hochul’s concealed-carry law as unconstitutional. And while the resolution is unlikely to garner much support from Democrats, its language illustrates the seriousness with which New York’s Republican delegation is willing to tackle the constitutional overreach embedded in this law.
It bears mentioning that a January report by The Heritage Foundation referenced a 2021 Social Science Research Network survey acknowledging that “roughly 1.6 million defensive gun uses occur in the United States every year.”
Jewish New Yorkers should insist that supportive statements expressing solidarity with the Jewish community are emphasized alongside loosening restrictive gun laws. While removing a critical constitutional safeguard, the implications involving the litany of regulations imposed by the concealed-carry law also alert criminals to the potential victims’ defenseless positions.
The egregious and unconstitutional gun mandates are yet another reason why New York is consistently ranked the “least free” state in the country by the Cato Institute ever since the libertarian think tank began its personal and economic freedom index in 2000.
Progressive policies that confine the freedoms of lawful citizens and protect the rights of the corrupt are accelerating a population migration to Florida, a state whose political climate grants honorable residents the flexibility to determine the terms of their own defense.
The rising cohort of Jewish Americans seeking gun protection demonstrates how advancing liberal laws has created an unsettling situation for the state’s religious population. Indeed, denying upstanding New Yorkers an organic and inherent American right may be the final and most attractive motivation to flee for sunnier pastures.
• Irit Tratt is an independent writer and a national board member of the Republican Jewish Coalition who serves on the board of fellows at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. She can be found on X @Irit_Tratt.
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