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NY Governor Wants Complete Ban on Concealed Carry

AP Photo/Hans Pennink, Pool

Kamala Harris may be trying to reinvent herself as a beer-swigging, Glock-owning denizen of Middle America as we head into the home stretch of the 2024 election season, but her biggest ally in the state of New York is giving voters a reminder of just how opposed most Democrats are to our fundamental right to keep and bear arms. 

During yesterday's signing ceremony for several gun control measure, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul volunteered her thoughts on concealed carry, and made her contempt crystal clear. 

And you all know what happened when the Supreme Court overturned the laws against concealed carry weapons, stripping away the power of the governor of this state to make her citizens safe. When the Supreme Court did that, we didn't throw up our hands and surrender. We fought back. We doubled down. We came up with legislation. And we have a prohibition on concealed carry weapons in sensitive places. I personally think every place is sensitive, don't you? Alright, well, we drew the lines, okay? We decided what was sensitive, and so far we are good. We now require comprehensive background checks, training and monitoring if anyone is seeking a concealed carry permit.

Hochul and New York Democrats did their best to label almost every inch of the state of New York a "sensitive place" after the Bruen decision, but despite her contention that the courts have upheld those restrictions, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled the blanket prohibition on carrying on private property enacted through the deceptively-named Concealed Carry Improvement Act likely violates the Second Amendment. 

In fact, just today a U.S. District Court judge granted an injunction against the state's latest attempt to block concealed carry on all private property unless a "concealed carry welcome" sign is posted; yet another ruling that the state's "sensitive places" language goes too far.

Many of the other "sensitive places" designated by the legislature are facing legal challenges as well, but the litigation is still ongoing and the courts have made no final determination. Ironically, thanks to Hochul, the plaintiffs in these cases now have another bit of evidence to point to in their argument that New York has acted in defiance of the Supreme Court's decision in Bruen by seeking to curtail the right to carry by labeling almost every public and private space a "sensitive" location where guns can be banned. 

While Hochul was honest enough about her desire to eradicate the right to carry, she misled her audience about one of the half-dozen gun control bills she signed into law on Wednesday: a measure mandating credit card companies use a specific merchant category code to identify purchases at gun stores. 

We're also going to require credit and debit card companies to track purchases at gun dealerships, and make it in turn for us to monitor the sale of guns and ammunition. So we know if someone's stockpiling ammo, not a good sign. There's a lot of deer in our state, but I kind of know some signs that you're not deer hunting this fall, right? So let's see if there's someone who's stockpiling again, sending up a red flag – something's not right over here – and someone pays attention. That's all we're asking to do here.

Contrary to Hochul's claims, the merchant category codes for gun stores don't allow credit card companies or the government to peer into the shopping carts of customers. These companies will know when a purchase was made and how much money was spent, but the codes don't reveal any specific purchases. 

Hochul is simply lying when she says that the use of these codes will allow New York to know if someone is stockpiling ammunition. Even if the MCCs allowed financial institutions or the state of New York to identify what was bought, how would Hochul or anyone else know if that ammo was sitting in someone's gun safe or had been sent through a paper target? They can't. 

Hochul's misinformation does raise one important question, however. It's clear that the governor believes that someone can have too much ammo, so what are her preferred limits? Is 1,000 rounds too much? 500? 50? I know plenty of gun owners (including myself) who have thousands of rounds of ammunition, not because of any nefarious intent, but because we can easily go through hundreds of rounds during a fun afternoon at the range. Once again, Hochul views a completely normal activity as a sign of wrongdoing, and one that should be reported to the authorities. 

Hochul was joined on stage by Gabby "No More Guns" Giffords and other gun control activists, all of whom are also proudly backing Kamala Harris's campaign. These anti-civil rights activists may not be happy with the fact that Harris is trying to woo gun owners with her talk about owning a Glock or saying anyone breaking into her home will get shot, but they'll bite their lips and keep their mouths shut knowing full well that if she's elected she'll act more like Hochul than Charlton Heston. 

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