New York state's concealed carry restriction may have been overturned by the Supreme Court last month, but Governor Kathy Hochul and state legislators are not done fighting for gun control measures. In the face of a spike in mass shootings this year, plus the repeated refrain that police enforcement missed countless warning signs, Albany will require New Yorkers applying for a concealed carry permit to hand over their social media accounts (active and inactive from the last 3 years) for review.

• Applicants' social media accounts will be screened as part of a process to determine “the essential character, temperament, and judgment necessary to be entrusted with a weapon and to use it only in a manner that does not endanger oneself and others,” notes Engadget.

• To no surprise, some law enforcement are already pushing back. As Peter Kehoe, executive director of the New York Sheriff's Association, told The Associated Press, the law infringes on Second Amendment rights, and enforcement is unlikely. “I don't think we would do that,” Kehoe added of the social media check. “I think it would be a constitutional invasion of privacy.”

SCOTUS Block

In late June, by a vote of 6 to 3 in favor of the Conservative majority, the Supreme Court ruled that there is a constitutionally protected right to carry a handgun in public for self-defense. As a result, the high court struck down New York's century-old limits on who can carry a gun outside the home to people doing so for hunting and special needs. “This decision isn't just reckless, it's reprehensible,” Governor Hochul said, writes NPR. “Our states and our governors have a moral responsibility to do what we can because of what is going on: The insanity of the gun culture that has now possessed everyone all the way up to even to the Supreme Court.”

The Verdict

Does New York want to fight to restrict gun ownership? Yes. But in the face of last month’s SCOTUS ruling on the matter, this might not be the most sensible way to go about it.