New York City designates Times Square a ‘gun-free zone’

NEW YORK >> Amid the bright lights and electronic billboards across New York’s Times Square, city authorities are posting new signs proclaiming the bustling crossroads a “Gun Free Zone.”

The sprawling Manhattan

tourist attraction is one of scores of “sensitive” places — including parks, churches and theaters — that will be off limits for guns under a sweeping new state law going into effect Thursday. The measure, passed after a U.S. Supreme Court decision in June expanded gun rights, also sets stringent standards for issuing concealed carry permits.

With 50 million tourists flocking to the area every year, Times Square is one of the most densely packed areas in the country and a prime spot, New York authorities say, to be designated as a “Gun Free Zone” under a new state law taking into effect Thursday that attempts to limit where guns can be legally carried.

“You actually have to say that: A gun-free zone,” said Mayor Eric Adams, who expressed bafflement during a Wednesday news conference that the city has resorted to posting signs along the perimeter of the 35-block business district as a way to keep guns out.

Police began hanging temporary signs on street poles with zip ties. On Thursday, digital street signs will be stationed across the area.

“I wish this wasn’t a topic we needed to talk about today. Had there not been a decision by the Supreme Court at the end of June, we would not be having this conversation,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said at the same news conference.

New York is among a halfdozen states that had key provisions of its gun laws invalidated by the high court because of a requirement for applicants to prove they had “proper cause” for a permit. Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday that she and her fellow Democrats in the state Legislature took action the next week because the ruling “destroyed the ability for a governor to be able to protect her citizens from people who carry concealed weapons anywhere they choose.”

The quickly adopted law, however, has led to confusion and court challenges from gun owners who say it improperly limits their constitutional rights.

“They seem to be designed less towards addressing gun violence and more towards simply preventing people from getting guns — even if those people are law-abiding, upstanding citizens, who according to the Supreme Court have the rights to have them,” said Jonathan Corbett, a Brooklyn attorney and permit applicant who is one of several people challenging the law in court.*