New York City has some of the toughest gun laws in the country. And it's essentially impossible for a normal, law-abiding citizen to acquire a concealed handgun permit. The result is that the majority of New Yorkers are defenseless against the criminals who wish to prey on them. As pointed out by the NY Times article, the SQF program does little to stop criminals, but does a great deal to strip away a New Yorker's fundamental right of self-defense. This is counterintuitive to public safety. While crime prevention is an important aspect of police work, the reality is the majority of the time law enforcement arrives after a crime has been committed.
The answer then is to arm New York. Arm the public. Restore their fundamental right of self-defense. There's an old saying, "An armed society is a polite society," and this rings true all across the country (except for places like Chicago, New York, Los Angeles). If one were to look across the country today, 49 of 50 states legalize some form of concealed carry. Twenty years ago, there were only 35 states (approx.) that legalized...
There are more guns in this country (90 per 100 people) than ever before, yet violent crime is at its lowest point in decades (as are accidental gun deaths). Why? "An armed society is a polite society."
In the end, SQF is ineffective, invasive, and unjust. it's time to end it. Replace it with public policy that restores one's liberty and one's fundamental right to protect oneself. If New York was to pass concealed carry legislation and put guns into the hands of law-abiding citizens, the city would be safer and discriminatory practices by NYPD would end.
Works Cited
Blannelberry, S.H. (2011). Ron Paul on Guns. Guns.com. Retrieved from http://www.guns.com/ron-paul-on-guns.html
McKnight, G.D. (1998). The Last Crusade: Martin Luther King, Jr., the FBI and the Poor People's Campaign. Boulder, CO: Westview Press
Rivera, R., Baker, a. & Roberts, J. (2010, July 6). A Few Blocks, 4 Years, 52,000
Police Stop. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/12/nyregion/12frisk.html?_r=1
