How the Supreme Court's Gun Decision Affects New York

You do not need a legal degree to detect the irritation etched into the individual justices' opinions in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc., et al. v. Bruen, the major gun case decided on Thursday by the Supreme Court. The Court concluded 6–3 that a certain New York State gun control statute is unconstitutional. Stephen Breyer says in a dissent backed by the Court's three liberal justices that the case has considerably larger ramifications. Breyer comments, "The issue before us is to what degree the Second Amendment inhibits democratically elected authorities from passing measures to address the significant problem of gun violence." "However, the Court pretends to address this question today without examining the nature or severity of the issue." Then, Breyer provides some statistics and data. In the United States, there are more firearms than people. Each year, around eighty-five thousand individuals are treated in emergency departments for nonfatal gun-related injuries; each year, tens of thousands of people are murdered by firearms. And although mass shootings have dominated the headlines, Breyer also highlights a sometimes neglected part of the gun violence crisis: suicide. In 2015, 1% of gun fatalities in the United States were accidental, 37% were murders, and the remainder, the majority, were suicides.

Why are data about the use of firearms to commit suicide relevant? In his concurrence, Samuel Alito, one of the six conservative justices who joined the majority judgment, writes: The legislation in issue makes it more difficult to get a license to carry a pistol outside the house in New York than in most other states. "Does the opposition believe that a large number of persons who own firearms in their houses will be prevented or dissuaded from shooting themselves if they are unable to legally carry them outside?" Alito poses a rhetorical query.

In short, absolutely. This seems to have occurred in the state of New York. Researchers from Utah State University and Montana State University, Briggs Depew and Isaac D. Swensen, released a study in 2019 analyzing the consequences of the Sullivan Act, a 111-year-old New York statute that created the state's gun-permitting regulations. Despite the study's conclusion that the legislation "had no discernible influence on murder or suicide rates," there is "clear evidence" that it led to a significant fall in gun-related suicide rates. By comparing fatality statistics in New York and other states before and after the enactment of the Sullivan Act, Depew and Swensen determined that gun suicides in New York decreased by 32 to 48 percent. In recent years, a number of prominent studies have shown substantial links between suicide and gun ownership rates. Chris Murphy, a senator from Connecticut who has been one of Congress's most outspoken advocates for gun control since the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, has said that addressing the nation's suicide epidemic and adopting gun-control measures are synonymous.

In 1911, the Sullivan Act was enacted in response to a murder-suicide that shocked New York City. In January of that year, an author called David Graham Phillips was murdered outside the Princeton Club by Fitzhugh Coyle Goldsborough, a violinist with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Goldsborough claimed Phillips had insulted his family in one of his books. Goldsborough shot Phillips, who died the next morning, and then turned the pistol on himself. In a few of months, Big Tim Sullivan, a Tammany Hall leader and state senator, pushed through legislation that would eventually serve as a blueprint for gun-control laws throughout the nation.

New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc., et al. v. Bruen was filed on behalf of Robert Nash and Brandon Koch of Rensselaer County, near Albany, who objected to a later amendment to the Sullivan Act that gives local officials some discretion in determining who is eligible for a permit to carry a concealed weapon in public. Both men were refused concealed-carry permits because neither could establish "proper cause" for their need of the license for self-defense. The conservative justices who joined the majority judgment authored by Clarence Thomas did not dispute with the decisions made by the local government. Thomas says that Nash did not report any distinct threats to his personal safety. Koch had the same circumstance as Nash. However, the conservative majority decided in their favor despite the state's stated interest in restricting gun ownership.

Since 2008's District of Columbia v. Heller and 2010's McDonald v. Chicago, conservative justices have been crafting a story about firearms and gun rights. Their verdict ties the state to this narrative. In District of Columbia v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago, the Supreme Court acknowledged that the Second and Fourteenth Amendments safeguard the right of an average, law-abiding individual to own a firearm in the house for self-defense. "We now believe, consistent with Heller and McDonald, that the Second and Fourteenth Amendments safeguard the right to carry a pistol outside the house for self-defense." The conservative justices of the Supreme Court seem unconcerned about the repercussions of repealing the Sullivan Act. New York will just have to accept it.

Governor Kathy Hochul, who called the verdict "shocking" and "terrifying in its magnitude," stated within minutes of the ruling's announcement that she would summon a special session of the state legislature, most likely within the next few weeks, to react. In reaction to the racist mass shooting in Buffalo, Hochul just passed a package of new gun control regulations, including increasing the minimum age for purchasing an AR-15-style weapon from eighteen to twenty-one. New York was one of the few states to implement stringent gun control legislation in reaction to horrific killings in recent years, and its legislators will now be challenged with replacing the Sullivan Act. This will certainly include designating schools and hospitals as "sensitive locations" where firearms are prohibited, even for individuals with licences. New York City, which witnessed an increase in shootings last year and where concerns over crime and violence have recently dominated the city's inner monologue, will undoubtedly be a focal point of the debate. When questioned on Thursday if the subways in New York City constitute as "sensitive areas," Hochul said, "I believe they do." In excess of a century ago, when Big Tim presented the Sullivan Act, he was unaware of its effects. No one can accurately predict what the law's repeal will imply for the next century.