NYC Top Cop Warns More Guns on Street 'Last Thing We Need' as SCOTUS Mulls Permit Law
New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said Sunday that he's concerned the U.S. Supreme Court could upend law enforcement's ability to keep guns out of the city as it considers a challenge to a restrictive state gun law.
Last week, the Supreme Court began hearing oral arguments in a case challenging a 100-year-old New York law that requires a person applying for a gun license to carry their firearm outside their home to demonstrate "proper cause."
The gun rights activists that brought the case before the court argue that under the law, "the state makes it virtually impossible for the ordinary law-abiding citizen to obtain a license."
The case is the first major Second Amendment issue the high court has taken up since its 6-3 conservative majority was recently bolstered by former President Donald Trump. While the justices aren't expected to issue a ruling in the case for months, they signaled opposition to gun control restrictions.
Speaking about the case on New York radio station WABC Sunday, Shea said "we are watching this closely, as many New Yorkers are."
"And gun violence is something that certainly has hit us here in the last two years. And not just New York, but across the country. And we would argue that the last thing we need is the infusion of additional guns into the streets of New York City," he said.
"So it's definitely something that concerns us, we've had our pulse on how to keep guns out of New York City for so long. To have that kind of upended right now, really really is a concern."
Shea told WABC that "what is being argued is that any attempt to regulate—and by our license division certainly here in New York City—would be struck down."
"What that would do would really open the floodgates in terms of people being able to carry guns across the city," he stated.
"From our viewpoint, it's a tough enough environment as it is. Even well-meaning people that may wish to carry guns—we see guns stolen, we see heated arguments escalate in a hurry. And from our viewpoint, we would love for it to be the NYPD and law enforcement to be the ones carrying the guns."
"Let us deal with the criminals that are illegally carrying the guns on the street ...and not infuse extra guns onto the streets of literally every neighborhood," he added.
