"New York's Gun Laws Sow Confusion As Nation Rethinks Regulation," says the headline over this morning's lead story in The New York Times. But after implicitly (and correctly) blaming state legislators for the "confusion," the Times identifies a different culprit in the subhead: the Supreme Court's June 23 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which "overturn[ed] century-old New York gun regulations" and "produced scores of new lawsuits," leaving "jurists and citizens" to "sort out what's legal."
In Bruen, the Court held that the right to bear arms guaranteed by the Second Amendment precludes states from requiring that residents "demonstrate a special need for self-protection distinguishable from that of the general community" before they are allowed to carry handguns outside their homes. The New York State Legislature responded with a law that eliminated the state's "proper cause" requirement for carry permits but simultaneously imposed new restrictions on public possession of firearms.
