Love him or hate him, one thing you have to give New York City Mayor Eric Adams is that heβs equal opportunity when he DGAF. In his first year as mayor, hizzoner hasnβt backed down from critics (including here at The Root) of his pro-cop stances, his NYPD-honed beliefs about how to fight rising violent crime in NYC, his liberal attitude toward legalized weed or his defense of New York as a so-called sanctuary city for undocumented migrants.
And so likewise, Mayor Adams donβt care about the gun lobby or federal courts when it comes to trying limit guns from βsensitive areasβ in New York, namely itβs biggest, most annoying tourist trap, Times Square. Adams is slated to sign into law a city ordinance banning carrying a firearm in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood, which for purposes of the bill is defined as the blocks between Ninth Avenue on the west, Sixth Avenue to the east, West 40th Street to the south and West 53rd Street to the north. (To the only vaguely familiar with NY geography, thatβs a pretty much a big, irregular rectangle that starts about six blocks south of Central Park, where all the big billboards are).
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Adams knows heβll be dragged into court, likely by the same gun-lobby affiliated group that successfully challenged New Yorkβs previous gun law that forbid carrying a concealed gun in the most crowded city on earth. The Rootinβ Tootinβ Gun Nuts of America (not the groupβs real name, but close enough), thought it a bad idea to infringe on New Yorkersβ right to not have to worry about everyone they run into being armed to the teeth, so they ran to Uncle Clarence and the other five conservatives no the court, who generally believe in statesβ rights on things like abortion restrictions and a Southern legislatureβs ability to pass discriminatory voting laws, but not when it comes to a left-leaning, northern stateβs ability to keep folks from having guns everywhere, and here we are. The Supreme Courtβs ruling striking down New Yorkβs more than 150-year-old concealed carry ban left one big loophole, that a state or municipality could ban guns from βsensitive areasβ, which they left undefined. Into that vacuum, the New York State Assembly and New Yorkβs City Council have tossed schools, parks and now, Timesβ Square. Adams will sign the cityβs new ordinance in a ceremony today alongside New York Attorney General Letitia James, and then theyβll wait for the next court challenge. In the meantime, folks who hold the Second Amendment in as high esteem as they do the 10 Commandments will hurl their anger in Adamsβ direction and they can expect the same response as every other Eric Adams critic: Go f*ck yourself.
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