Ask almost any New Yorker about guns and you\u2019ll get a strong opinion. Now, new numbers from the NYPD show more city residents than ever are trying to legally carry one.<\/p>\n
\tAt the Earnest Training Center, instructor Kevin Earnest lines up students in front of a table of paint rounds and a bright blue training pistol. The tools are fake \u2014 but the lessons, he says, are meant to mimic the real thing.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThis is a training gun,\u201d he explains over the crack of simulated gunfire. \u201cAnything can happen in NYC. So it\u2019s always best to be prepared \u2014 you can never be overprepared.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tEarnest is an NRA-certified instructor who runs a gun-safety course for New Yorkers applying for concealed carry permits. Since a 2022 Supreme Court ruling reshaped New York\u2019s gun laws, he says demand for his classes has surged.<\/p>\n
\tAccording to an analysis of NYPD data by the nonprofit news outlet THE CITY, more than 17,000 New Yorkers have been approved for concealed carry permits since 2022 \u2014 a dramatic jump from the fewer than 4,000 permit holders before the law changed. That shift followed the Bruen decision, which struck down parts of New York\u2019s decades-old concealed carry restrictions and expanded where licensed gun owners can carry.<\/p>\n
\tEarnest says that change has brought a wide range of people into his classroom.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI have regular citizens,\u201d he said. \u201cI do have some security officers that are unarmed and wish to be armed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tFor some students, the motivation is straightforward.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cTo defend ourselves\u2026 to defend our family,\u201d one man said.<\/p>\n
\tOthers see it as a matter of fairness, pointing to looser gun laws in other parts of the country.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIf you have it down south, what\u2019s the difference for New Yorkers?\u201d another person asked. \u201cIt don\u2019t make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tBut in The Bronx \u2014 a borough that has some of the highest rates of gun violence in the city \u2014 not everyone is convinced that more permits will make neighborhoods safer.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIn The Bronx? I don\u2019t think so,\u201d one woman said when asked about the rise in legal guns.<\/p>\n
\tEarnest argues that the people going through the lengthy permitting process are not the ones communities should be worried about.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIdeally, the people who conceal carry are law-abiding citizens,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re not breaking the law.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tGetting to that point isn\u2019t easy. Applicants must complete a 16-hour classroom training course and two hours of live-fire training, fill out extensive paperwork and pass an NYPD review of their \u201cgood moral character.\u201d Between training fees, range time and application costs, the process can quickly climb into the hundreds of dollars.<\/p>\n
\tFor some, that raises another question: whether the system puts too many burdens on people trying to follow the law \u2014 while illegal guns continue to flow into the city.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWhy does it take so long to protect ourselves when criminals out here just do what they want \u2014 and there\u2019s really no repercussions?\u201d Earnest said.<\/p>\n
\tAs more New Yorkers sign up for classes and submit permit applications, the debate over guns in the five boroughs is shifting from the streets to the classroom \u2014 and to the city\u2019s courts and lawmakers.<\/p>\n
\tFor now, the questions remain: Will more legal guns in holsters make New Yorkers feel safer? Or will it leave a city already divided over gun violence feeling even more split over how to stop it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ask almost any New Yorker about guns and you\u2019ll get a strong opinion. Now, new numbers from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-39727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}