There is a famous quote, often attributed to Albert Einstein, that says, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.” I’ve always taken that quote to mean that you should make things as simple as possible while still making sure that it works.
Strangely, politicians leaning towards the political left seem to think that the reverse of that concept is what you want. They seem to think that you should make things as complex and convoluted as possible in order to, if at all possible, keep it from working while still being able to say that you’re trying to do something to fix the problem (because you’ve ordered people to do that complex and pointless thing).
That seems to be exactly what New York Governor Kathy Hochul as done to deal with a situation in New York City. Candace Hathaway writes,
New York Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday that her administration plans to deploy 750 National Guardsmen to New York City subway systems amid an uptick in underground violence.
During a Wednesday press conference in Albany, Hochul unveiled a “five-point plan” to address the city’s crime-ridden subways. As part of the new strategy to curb violence, Hochul will deploy 1,000 New York State Police officers, Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police officers, and New York National Guardsmen to assist the New York Police Department with conducting bag checks.
Now, here’s the irony of the whole situation to me: with one single, simple thing, Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams could both cause the crime rate in New York City (and, yes, its subways) to plummet without needing to send out more police officers and without having an expensive deployment of National Guard personnel at those subways. Just one.
Can you guess what it is?
It’s to stop fighting constitutional carry in the State of New York and simply allow law-abiding people to both train and carry firearms at any time and anywhere, including in subways.
Two weeks of that would see criminals looking for other, legal ways to make money and other, legal to deal with their aggression issues. Because they don’t like someone returning fire at them.