14,000 New York Bodega Workers to Tool Up?

Sometimes firearms-related stories go from the sublime to the ridiculous. For example, the proactive searching procedures that helped remove knives, guns and drugs from violence-plagued inner city schools have morphed into zero tolerance policies that expel grade schoolers who pack a toy pistol in their backpack. Sometimes, stories go from the ridiculous to the sublime. For example, cab driver turned “community organizer” Fernando Mateo’s announcement that Hispanics Across America will distribute gun-permit applications to 14,000 Empire State bodega workers. On the face of it, it’s a stupid publicity stunt, designed to exploit the murder of a Queens (NYC) bodega owner named Juan Arcadio Torres. At closer examination, it could be the beginning of the end of New York’s de facto gun ban . . .

Think of it this way: to roll back the New York regulations that infringe upon residents’ Second Amendment rights, you could find a squeaky clean citizen denied their 2A right to bear arms and file a lawsuit on their behalf. It sounds crazy, but it just might work. To a point. For a while.

Look at Chicago. Ten minutes after the Supremes struck down the Windy City’s handgun ban, the Council enacted a range of restrictive regs that accomplished the same goal, barging through the “reasonable” loophole left open by the nation’s highest court. Alternatively . . .

If 10,000 New York store owners apply for a Concealed Carry Weapons (CCW) permit, the Powers That Be would face a range of unpleasant political possibilities.

They could turn them all down—and then try to explain why 10,000 or so decent Americans (minorities no less) can’t exercise their constitutional right to defend themselves against an obvious, irrefutable danger.

They could approve some bodega owners and not others—and then try to explain who made the cut and why while trying not to appear discriminatory. Good luck with that.

They could approve them all—and then watch as tens of thousands more New York citizens follow the bodega owners’ lead and apply for their concealed carry permits.

Definitely one to watch.