The number of New Yorkers petitioning to arm themselves with guns — both at home and on the streets — more than doubled last year, according to new data on NYPD license and permit applications obtained by Gothamist.
But the NYPD will not say how many gun license and concealed carry permit applications it has approved, even as the department faces a class-action lawsuit claiming it takes too long to review applications.
The surging number of applications follows a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2022 that found New York’s gun licensing regime was too strict. Last year, the NYPD License Division received 13,369 to possess a handgun or rifle at home. That’s 80% more applications for home licenses than the department got in 2022, and nearly triple the applications it got in 2019.
The increase was even starker for concealed carry applications, which jumped from 258 in 2019 to 6,751 last year, according to NYPD data.
The number of concealed carry applications in the first two months of this year has already surpassed the total for 2019, 2020 and 2021 combined.
The NYPD did not respond to multiple requests for data on the number of applications the department has approved since 2019.
John Deloca, who owns the Seneca Sporting Range in Ridgewood, said he’s seen a huge spike in customers buying firearms and enrolling in concealed carry permit classes.
“We’re selling guns like pancakes,” said Deloca, who goes by the nickname “Johnny Guns.”
Deloca said his customers want to arm themselves because they feel unsafe when they see gruesome news stories like a subway conductor getting slashed in the neck or when they drive beside recklessly speeding cars.
“People are getting guns because everybody is out of control,” he said.
Gun sales climbed nationally during the height of the pandemic. Background checks for gun sales have been declining statewide each year since peaking in 2020, according to FBI data.
Peter Tilem, an attorney who represents gun owners in Second…
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