The number of concealed carry applications submitted to the NYPD's Licensing Bureau has soared since the city's "may issue" standard was struck down by the Supreme Court two years ago, but the police department is keeping quiet about the number of applications that have been approved since then. 

According to Gothamist, the city received just 315 carry permit applications in 2021, the last full year when applicants had to demonstrate a "justifiable need" before they could be approved. From 2022 up through March of this year, however, the NYPD has received more than 11,000 carry applications; still a pretty paltry number given the nearly 7 million adults that call New York City home, but a clear sign that a growing number of New Yorkers are embracing their Second Amendment rights... or at least attempting to do so. 

So why is the NYPD so reluctant to produce the number of approved applications? Well, it could be that the number would reveal the department is taking an unreasonable amount of time in processing applications, which would be very helpful to those gun owners who are suing the department over the lengthy delays. 

Peter Tilem, an attorney who represents gun owners in Second Amendment cases, mainly attributes the increase in permit and license applications to the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn the state’s old licensing laws. 

... But Tilem said the NYPD is not moving as quickly as it faces a deluge of license applications. He filed a lawsuit last year on behalf of gun owners in New York and New Jersey who say the police department’s licensing criteria are “impossible to meet” and the process takes too long.

The lawsuit argues delays in the NYPD’s licensing division have unconstitutionally prevented people from exercising their Second Amendment rights in New York City. The NYPD declined to comment after Tilem filed the lawsuit.

The most recent figures for NYPD approval rates that I've been able to find were published a little more than a year ago, and showed the department's Licensing Bureau was actually approving fewer applications than it did in the last year of the "may issue" regime. In 2021, the NYPD received 4,663 applications and approved 2,591 of them; an approval rate of about 56%. The following year, the Licensing Bureau received 7,260 carry permit applications, but only approved 1,550 of them; a rate of just 21%. But as the website The City noted last July, the NYPD has officially rejected only a handful of applications. 

Relatively few applications have been flat-out denied — just 16 in 2022, including two for applications submitted after the June 23 Supreme Court ruling, meaning the approval rates still could change as the NYPD completes additional, and now overdue, investigations. 

Most of the applications are still pending, an indication the NYPD’s permitting operation came to a standstill in the wake of the ruling, experts say.

“‘Holy shoot, what do we do now?’” said attorney Peter Tilem, describing the conversations he suspected were playing out behind closed doors at the NYPD’s gun permitting department. “Let’s not decide anything and let’s figure out what our options are.’”

Tilem represents gun owners in a class-action lawsuit against the NYPD over delays in the NYPD’s gun-permitting system. “New York City has operated one way for 100 years,” he added. 

The NYPD didn’t return multiple requests for comment and clarification on the data, which emerged in court papers filed in Brooklyn Supreme Court at the end of this June.

That data was uncovered by attorney Vinoo Varghese, who was representing Dexter Taylor, the New York resident recently sentenced to ten years in prison for making homemade guns without the approval of city officials. Varghese argued that there was no way Taylor could have received a permit for his firearms given the snail-like pace of approvals for both carry permits and premises permits. 

The court papers cite the drop in approvals for residential gun permits between 2021 and 2022, the time during which Taylor said he was newly enamored with learning how to build and maintain his own 3D-printed guns. 

In 2021, according to the data, the NYPD approved 352 of 1,841 applications for permits to keep guns in a person’s home, or over 19%. In 2022, that approval rate plummeted, with the NYPD approving just 86 of 2,266 new residence permit applications submitted, or under 4%, though that approval rate may shift as the NYPD reviews additional applications.

Though Varghese did a great job of showing how the city is impeding the exercise of our Second Amendment rights, Taylor was still convicted at trial and sentenced to a decade behind bars earlier this summer. 

Because the NYPD isn't releasing the number of approved applications, we have no real way of knowing just how many folks are stuck in a legal limbo. My guess is that if the numbers had improved substantially from last July the NYPD wouldn't be nearly as reticent about disclosing the approval/denial rates. We'll be talking more about this ongoing issue with attorney Amy Bellantoni on Thursday's Bearing Arms' Cam & Co, and she'll be able to give us a firsthand report on what her clients have experienced in recent months.