The attack that occurred in New York City subway yesterday is proof positive that gun control, as envisioned by the Gun Control Industry and like-minded politicians, simply does not work. Honest, hard-working people were going about their day in Brooklyn, headed to work. Thanks to the intransigence of their local and state governments, these people were completely disarmed, left to the mercy of someone who’d planned his attack to do the most damage possible.
“First responders” were too late to do anything about the shooting. They always are.
As a former police officer, I know the sad truth. We virtually always respond to events after the fact. We rarely prevent them from occurring. What stops bad people from doing terrible things is good people. Good people who are there, at the scene, and armed.
New York City’s Mayor, Eric Adams, a former NYPD officer, knows this, but like so many before him, he chooses to ignore it. Instead, he spews the same old media-friendly prescriptions of increasing the number of police in NYC’s Subways. It’s all just security theater that will continue to leave the city’s residents vulnerable to the rising crime and violence that have plagued the city.
My statement on this morning’s shooting in Brooklyn: pic.twitter.com/TbLfCZa7WW
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) April 12, 2022
Subway crime is hardly unusual. From February 21 to February 27 alone, 55 subway crimes were reported. That’s compared to 18 in 2021. NYC had a 205.6% jump in crime. New Yorkers can actually track the crime that’s afflicting their city on the NYPD’s own website.
Subway crimes stats increased 72.4% for the most recent 28-day period, and 72.8% year-to-date compared to the same time last year, the data shows. Hate crimes have jumped up 200% and the total crime index jumped up 47%.
This has become the new norm for the city’s straphangers.
WANTED For an Assault: On Monday February 21, 2022 at Approx. 5:15 P.M, on the S/B platform of the East 241 St. Subway station, @nypd47pct an unknown individual struck a 43 year old female with human feces . Call @ 800-577-TIPS or DM NYPDTips Reward up to $3500.00 pic.twitter.com/pmuoWzsvIk
— NYPD Crime Stoppers (@NYPDTips) February 28, 2022
The irony of this is thick. In her arguments last year before the Supreme Court against lifting New York’s “may issue” concealed carry permitting system — which, in practice, is a no-issue system, except for the rich and powerful — New York Solicitor General Barbara Underwood cited the city’s subway system as an example of why legal concealed carry by average citizens must continue to be banned.
Here’s how her exchange with Justice Samuel Alito went . . .
The rote anti-gun rights arguments put forward by Ms. Underwood hinged on the false premise that the city, and the subway system in particular, are patrolled by law enforcement officers. That average citizens have no need to carry firearms because the police are there to deal with criminals.
As anyone with a clear view of life in the real world knows, that’s almost never the case. Citizens are virtually always their own first responders and consigning their safety to police knowingly leaves them vulnerable to predators like the one who opened fire on the train in Brooklyn yesterday.
The only thing that could have stopped or possibly reduced the carnage of this horrific act was good people, legally armed and able to defend themselves from a crazed killer.
The subways in New York City are a ripe target for ne’er-do-wells, criminals, and others wishing to pray upon innocent victims in an enclosed environment. Easy victims who are disarmed by government decree because, the government says, they’re safer that way.
The only rational solution is to expand the right to carry firearms outside the home in New York City. Honest, law-abiding citizens there deserve to exercise the same right to keep and bear arms that their fellow Americans in Texas, New Hampshire, Utah or Ohio have. Just because they happen to live in the Empire State or the Big Apple doesn’t mean their rights are any less important or guaranteed by the Constitution.
Luis Valdes is the State Director of Florida and Director of Outreach for Puerto Rico & U.S. Virgin Islands for Gun Owners of America.