Times Square is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world. Anyone who goes to New York just has to find time to visit. Despite that status, though, many New Yorkers can't go unless they agree to give up their right to keep and bear arms. That's because Times Square is a gun-free zone.
For now, anyway.
There's a lawsuit that challenges the ban, and New York Attorney General Letitia James wants the judge to toss it.
The Firearms Policy Coalition has other thoughts.
Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) announced today that it filed an opposition to New York Attorney General Letitia James’s motion to dismiss in Goldberger v. James, FPC’s lawsuit challenging the State’s unconstitutional ban on firearm carry in the Times Square area. Briefing on James’s motion began over the summer, but due to an instruction from the court, the documents were not filed on the docket until Friday.
After the Supreme Court struck down New York’s may-issue carry regime in Bruen, the State responded by imposing a massive new patchwork of bans on carry in publicly accessible places. One of those laws makes it a felony to possess a firearm in “the area commonly known as Times Square”—a sprawling area of ordinary streets, sidewalks, parks, hotels, residences, and businesses—even for someone otherwise licensed to carry in New York City. A violation can result in one to four years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.
“New York’s Bruen temper tantrum has already lost in court, and Letitia James does not get to hide behind procedural games while the State threatens peaceable people with years in prison for exercising their rights. FPC and our members are directly harmed by this unconstitutional ban, and we intend to make New York answer for it on the merits,” said FPC President Brandon Combs.
James argues that she cannot properly be sued over the Times Square ban and that the plaintiffs lack standing to sue her. FPC’s opposition argues that New York law expressly allows the Attorney General, at the Governor’s direction, to step into the role of a district attorney and prosecute violations of the ban. That matters because if local prosecutors are ultimately enjoined, James could otherwise remain available to enforce the law in their place. As FPC’s brief explains: “If Plaintiffs are right that the Times Square Ban is unconstitutional, that avenue needs to be closed.”
They're absolutely right to include her, especially as this is Letitia James we're talking about here. This is the woman that declared war on the National Rifle Association and was determined to scuttle the nation's oldest civil rights organization, not because the organization did anything wrong, but because she simply doesn't like what they stand for.
Wayne LaPierre's shenanigans didn't help, granted, but the NRA and its membership were the victims there, not the perpetrators.
I bring this up because we know how anti-gun she is. She will absolutely go after anyone she can if the DA is enjoined from enforcing the law. After all, an injunction that doesn't apply to her doesn't apply. It's just that simple. Until and unless the FPC could get an injunction that impacts her, too, it would be hell for anyone trying to act lawfully.
So yeah, she needs to be included because we know she'll most definitely act to prosecute anyone and everyone she can.
The fact that she's still in office and hasn't been removed by lawmakers for any of a number of legitimate reasons tells you all you need to know about the state.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their extreme gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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