The MTA reviewing its rules governing who is allowed to bear arms in its transit system and facilities, in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling Thursday that struck down the state’s restrictions on carrying guns in public.
A lawyer for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority released a statement Thursday that agency officials are drafting changes to keep weapons out of mass transit.
“To be clear, protecting our employees and customers is MTA’s highest priority, and the presence of guns within a sensitive place like New York’s transit system is an unacceptable risk,” said MTA’s general counsel Paige Graves on June 23. “Considering this Supreme Court decision, we have begun drafting appropriate rules to keep dangerous weapons out of our subways, buses and commuter trains.”
The MTA’s rules of conduct ban firearms and other dangerous instruments like knives and flammable materials from its subways and buses, and the offense carries a $100 fine.
However, law enforcement is exempt from the prohibition as are people with a New York State license to carry a gun, which they have to keep concealed, according to the transit rules.
The MTA is taking another look at those non-law enforcement licensees being allowed to carry firearms on trains, buses, and in stations, according to agency sources.
The court on Thursday struck down a 109-year-old New York law restricting people from carrying firearms in public.
Mayor Eric Adams previously said he was worrying sleep over a possible court decision like this, saying that permitting guns on subways would be a “worst-case scenario.”
Governor Kathy Hochul specifically pointed out the subways as a potential sensitive target to gun violence in her remarks Thursday condemning the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“Does everyone understand what a concealed weapon means?” Hochul asked. “That you have no forewarning. That someone could hide a weapon on them and gun into our subways. Go into our grocery stores, like stores up in Buffalo, New York where I’m from. Go into a school in Parkland and Uvalde. This could place millions of New Yorkers in harm’s way. This decision isn’t just reckless, it’s reprehensible.”
Hochul said she would call the state legislature back into session to pass a new gun law once a deal on legislation is reached.
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