New York’s quest to immolate itself in much the same way as California hit a minor snag last week. Gov. Kathy Hochul and state Democrats have been trying to find ways to implement draconian gun laws, even though New York City itself is in the throes of a historic crime wave that shows no signs of abating. One of the moves by Hochul and company has been to essentially expand gun-free zones, referring to them as “sensitive places,” where a firearm cannot be carried. Houses of worship were designated as sensitive places, making congregants and clergy alike sitting ducks, and making those places soft targets for bad actors.
As I noted last month, the NY State Jewish Gun Club filed a lawsuit over the provision, not only on the grounds that worshippers would be at risk in those situations, but that their first amendment rights would be curtailed. People might not attend services for fear of being wounded or killed by a gunman. On Oct. 4, 25 churches from around the Empire State and the New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms also filed a lawsuit challenging that section of the Concealed Carry Improvement Act. American Military News reports that the defendants in the case include the head of the state police, Kevin Bruen, and the district attorneys from the counties of each church. Arguments in the case are slated to start on Nov. 3.
According to Syracuse.com on Thursday, U.S. District Judge John Sinatra Jr. blocked enforcement of the law with a temporary restraining order. Sinatra ruled that the state could not show that the restriction fit with the June ruling by the Supreme Court, and that allowing church attendees to carry guns would foster self-defense at places of worship, which is in the public interest. Sinatra wrote that as the law currently stands, it “creates a vulnerable population of attendees at places of worship left to the whims of potential armed wrongdoers who are uninterested in following the law in any event.”
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The state’s position had been to cite similar laws in Virginia, Missouri, Texas, and Georgia that date all the way back to the late 19th Century. For a quick reference, that period of time spans from 1800 to 1899, and obviously, the nation was a very different place then. Sinatra called those precedents “outliers” that did not represent “a tradition of accepted prohibitions.”
Even if the temporary block on the restriction becomes permanent, New York Democrats and Democrats in general will be back. Maybe they can’t keep concealed weapons out of houses of worship, but they can find ways to keep guns out of the hands of citizens. If you solve that problem, then the ban on guns in churches practically solves itself.
Keep in mind, the ruling class has no problem with guns per se. It views guns the same way it views money and power — as long as it has all the money, power, and guns, things are fine. Those things are only problematic when they are in the hands of a citizenry that needs to be controlled.
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