While New York City's new "emergency" rule allowing non-residents to apply for a concealed carry permit is a step in the right direction, it doesn't resolve every issue related to the right to carry. In fact, Second Amendment attorney Amy Bellantoni tells Bearing Arms it actually creates another issue for both the city and state of New York. 

"What's the emergency?", Bellantoni asked rhetorically. More importantly, does the city of New York even have the authority to implement that kind of change, as necessary as it might be? 

"It's the police commissioner [instituting the new rule], not a legislative body, so who is he to say 'we're now going to institute this rule'?" 

It wasn't voted on by the city council. He's not an elected official, he's appointed by the mayor. And he doesn't have the authority to do this, in his own position, first of all. Second, I don't see NYC having the authority to offer an out-of-state resident license to anyone under the existing state statute, because that's not a part of the statute that gives NYC the authority to do their own thing. They can have their own application and their own application process, but when we're talking about the individuals that are eligible to apply, you have to have a residence here, or a business, or a pistol license granted by an upstate licensing officer in order to appy for a special carry license. They're preempted by state law. They don't have the authority to do this. 

To that end, Carl Higbie, the Newsmax host who challenged New York's ban on non-resident carry (along with several other individual plaintiffs), reminded me on today's Bearing Arms Cam & Co that the litigation was actually aimed at challenging the state law, not any local edict in New York City. So while NYC's "emergency" rule may be meant to stave off a future lawsuit against the city, it doesn't have any direct bearing on Higbie v. James. In fact, a ten-hour mediation session held on July 15th failed to reach an agreement acceptable to both plaintiffs and defendants, so the litigation is still moving ahead to a trial. 

If New York City doesn't have any legal basis in allowing for non-residents to apply for and receive a carry permit, it would be up to New York Attorney General Letitia James to step in and quash the city's "emergency" rule. I've reached out to the AG's office to see if James has any thoughts on New York City's new rule, and we'll report back when and if we get a response. 

In the meantime, Higbie says he's planning on jumping through all of the necessary hoops in order to apply for a NYC non-resident carry permit. Whether the state of New York would recognize that permit as valid is very much an open question, and with Higbie v. James still making its way to trial in a New York courtroom, the issue of non-resident carry is still very much unresolved despite NYC's new rule. 

Check out my conversations with both Carl Higbie and Amy Bellantoni in the video window below, and stay tuned for future developments.