New York lawmakers declared Times Square a gun-free zone in response to a U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down the state’s firearms law and to protect the tourism magnet as it rebounded from the pandemic. Last Thursday, a 22-year-old Bronx man was fatally shot near a Shake Shack restaurant in the area. The shooting, the first since the creation of the expansive, signposted zone, renewed questions about whether such a designation can truly protect the area, reports the New York Times. “People feel emboldened to carry guns on the street,” said Tom Harris, a retired New York police inspector and the president of the Times Square Alliance, which promotes businesses and major events.
The shooting victim was Idrissa Siby. Police were searching for two gunmen. Harris praised Mayor Eric Adams and the police department for more than doubling the size of the unit that patrols Times Square to 137 officers from 65. The beefed-up patrols have led to a promising dip in crime, Harris said. In the last three months of 2022, the police were reporting one felony every three days, compared with every two days in 2021. On New Year’s Eve, a man from Maine whom they described as a would-be jihadist wielded a machete against three officers, including one who had just graduated from the police academy and sustained a fractured skull. The state passed the law establishing the zone after the Supreme Court’s June decision striking down New York’s century-old gun law, which had placed strict limits on the public carrying of firearms. The measure designated government buildings, places of worship, health care providers, libraries, playgrounds, public parks, the subway and Times Square as places where people would be prohibited from carrying guns.