When New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced earlier this month that she was deploying 1,000 members of the National Guard to New York City's subway system, she proclaimed that the move would help residents and visitors "feel" safe. But there was another motivating factor behind the governor's decision: pure partisan politics. 

“I am going to demonstrate that Democrats fight crime,” she also told Joe Scarborough and his crew, “so this narrative that Republicans have set, and hijacked the story that we’re soft on crime that we defund the police — no.”

No, she'll create a police state instead. Her move has drawn scorn from conservatives, civil libertarians, and even some progressives, but it hasn't stopped violent crimes from being committed, and the city's subway system remains "gun-free" in name only.

A 36-year-old man was in a critical condition in a New York hospital Thursday night after he was shot with his own gun in a violent and chaotic altercation on a crowded subway train in Brooklyn, police said. 

The 36-year-old unidentified man is seen in several videos posted to social media approaching a 32-year-old man on the train, before entering into a verbal confrontation.

The scene developed into a fight and police say the 36-year-old produced a knife or razor blade and threatened the other man.

As the tense scene unfolded, one video posted online shows a woman in the carriage wearing a white face mask intervene as the 36-year-old pinned the other man down on a seat. With blood then clearly appearing on his shirt, the man turns to her and repeatedly says, “You stabbed me?” 

In a news conference Friday morning, NYPD head of transit, Michael Kemper, said that officers were aware of video circulating appearing to show the stabbing.

"It looks like she had a sharp object and cut the 36-year-old male with that sharp object," he said. "We want to reassure everyone we’re aware of the video." 

The video shows him later taking a firearm from his jacket. The man with the gun walked toward the other man while yelling “in menacing way,” Kemper said in a news conference Thursday night.

The 32-year-old man can be seen standing in front of the woman as the armed man verbally threatened her in video posted online, as passengers scrambled to the opposite side of the carriage.

But at some point the aggressor lost control of the gun and was shot by the other man multiple times just as the train was pulling into Schermerhorn Station, Kemper said Thursday.

You can see the video for yourself here. I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict that the guy who pulled a gun does not have a valid NYC carry permit. 

NYC Subway altercation on 3/14/2024 starts w/ a verbal dispute, escalates to a fist fight, then a stabbing, when shots are then fired in a confined subway car. Cursory bag checks, 1000 National Guard troops, & state police, all cosmetic. Broken Windows now pic.twitter.com/FesPR8WbPN

— Rob O'Donnell (@odonnell_r) March 15, 2024

By the way, most knives are also prohibited on public transit in New York City as well, but that policy seems to be working about as well as the "Gun-Free Zone" signs. 

While Hochul is interested in the feelings of riders and the optics of looking "soft-on-crime", she and her fellow Democrats are unwilling to take the one simple step that would actually allow transit riders to be safer, not only when they're on the subway but as they're going about their daily routine: scrapping the transit system's "sensitive place" designation and once again allowing lawful concealed carry holders to bear arms on the subway, as was the case before the state responded to the Bruen decision by adopting a host of new "gun-free zones". 

Hochul's security theater isn't stopping some people from illegally carrying weapons, and there aren't enough transit police to station a cop in every subway car. The folks who are most impacted by this policy are those concealed carry license holders who are trying to comply with the law, and I doubt any of them feel safer because the governor and her allies in Albany have demanded they be disarmed when using public transportation. Why would they? It seems like every day there's another incident to point to that demonstrates these "gun-free zones" aren't protecting anyone, and are only preventing lawful carry holders from protecting themselves and others.