New York is making it harder to get a gun. A rule states that anyone applying for a concealed carry handgun permit will need to submit a list of all of their social media accounts. The legislation is part of a larger package of laws that Kathy Hochul signed last week.
In addition to contact information for themselves and others in their household, character references, and a certificate of firearms training, concealed carry applicants will have to give a list of their former and current social media accounts.
New York state had restrictions on carrying firearms in public. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the majority opinion in that 6-3 decision. Hochul promised she and legislators would act quickly to pass further restrictions, unlike those impacted by the Supreme Court ruling. The governor made good on that promise.
The New York state legislation passed last week requires social media companies to provide and maintain mechanisms for reporting hate speech.
Since the mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, Hochul has been critical of social media companies. A white supremacist with a semi-automatic rifle killed ten people and injured three others in a predominantly Black neighborhood. The shooter talked about his plans on the platform. During the shooting, he streamed his actions on the platform.
It is not clear if a Discord account would be covered by the new legislation. The company requirement says that social media networks are designed to enable users to share any content with other users or to make such content available to the public.
It is not possible to see a Discord chat in the same way that a Facebook post is seen. The bill doesn't clarify if or how private and restricted social media accounts would be dealt with if they were listed on a gun application.
If the social media requirement is legal, officials are concerned about how it will be enforced. The director of the New York Sheriff's Association, Peter Kehoe, told the Associated Press that he believes the new law is unconstitutional. Kehoe told the AP that they wouldn't do that. It would be a violation of privacy.
The social media requirement could lead to more harmful over-surveillance of certain communities, like black people or Muslims. The AP came from it.
“The question should be: Can we do this in an anti-racist way that does not create another set of violence, which is the state violence that happens through surveillance?” said University of Pennsylvania social policy, communications and medicine professor Desmond Upton Patton, who also founded SAFElab, a research initiative studying violence involving youths of color.
The new laws are supported by many state Democrats. Republicans and anti-gun control groups are going to fight the new bills in court. New York Republican Party Chairman, Nick Langworthy, said that he would be taking legal action.
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