New York City Granting even fewer Concealed Handgun Permits After Supreme Court’s Bruen Decision
In the six months after the Supreme Court’s Bruen Decision, the New York City Police Department granted only 503 permits for an annual rate of just about 1,000. By contrast, in 2021, they granted 2,591. They were granted permits at just 38.5% of the rate in 2021. Even worse, there were a lot more applications after Bruen, so the rate of acceptance was even lower — falling dramatically from 56% in 2021 to 10% during the last six months of 2022.
. . . In 2021, the NYPD — which vets firearm permits — received 4,663 applications and approved 2,591 of them, about 56%, all under the stricter “proper cause” standard the Supreme Court struck down last year. That standard required gun owners in New York to show “proper cause” in order to receive a permit to carry a weapon, but the court said licenses should be granted by default unless there was a specific reason to deny an applicant.
In 2022, the NYPD saw an increased number of new applications — 7,260 — but approved just 1,550, or 21%, even though applications filed in the second half of that year no longer had to meet the “proper cause” standard where applicants had to make an affirmative case for why they needed a license.
In the six months after the high court’s ruling in New York State Rifle vs. Bruen, from June 24, 2022 to Dec. 31, 2022, the NYPD saw a surge in new gun permit applications, from just over 2,000 in the same period a year earlier to nearly 5,000. So far, the department has approved 503 of those, or just above 10%, despite its guidelines and state law requiring applications to be decided upon within six months. . . .
