Ed Jones | AFP | Getty Images As missed warning signs pile up in mass-murder investigations, New York state is rolling out a new strategy to screen applicants for gun permits. People seeking to carry concealed weapons will have to submit their social media accounts for a “character and conduct” check. It’s an approach that has been applauded by many Democrats and national gun control advocacy groups, but some experts have raised questions about how the law will be implemented and address free speech concerns. Some of the local officials tasked with reviewing social media content also question whether they will have the resources and, in some cases, whether the law is even constitutional. Sheriffs have not received additional money or staff to handle a new application process, said Peter Kehoe, executive director of the New York Sheriffs Association. The law, he argued, violates Second Amendment rights, and while applicants must report their social media accounts, he doesn’t think local officials will necessarily consider them. “I don’t think we would do that,” Kehoe said. “I think it would be a constitutional invasion of privacy.” The new requirement, which takes effect in September, was included in a law passed last week that seeks to maintain certain limits on firearms after the Supreme Court ruled that most people have a right to carry a gun for personal protection. It was signed by Gov. Kathy Hotchul, a Democrat, who noted that shooters sometimes telegraph their intent to harm others. Increasingly, young men are taking to the Internet to indicate what’s to come before they carry out a mass murder, including the gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school. By law, applicants must provide local officials with a list of current and former social media accounts from the previous three years. It will be up to local sheriff’s personnel, magistrates or county officials to browse these profiles as they check to see if applicants have made statements that indicate dangerous behavior. The law would also require applicants to undergo hours of safety training, prove they are proficient at shooting, provide four character references and participate in in-person interviews. New York Governor Kathy Hochul speaks to the media during her inauguration ceremony at the New York State Capitol in Albany, New York on August 24, 2021. Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Images The law reflects how the Supreme Court’s decision has shifted responsibility to states for controlling those who carry firearms in public, said Tanya Schardt, senior counsel and director of state and federal policy for the gun control group. Brady. Her group said it was not aware of any other state that requires gun permit applicants to submit social media profiles. The new approach, however, comes amid growing debate over the policing of social media posts and a legacy of unjustified targeting of black and brown communities. “The question has to be: Can we do this in an anti-racist way that doesn’t create another set of violence, which is state violence that happens through surveillance?” said University of Pennsylvania professor of social policy, communications and medicine Desmond Upton Patton, who also founded SAFElab, a research initiative that studies violence involving youth of color. Meanwhile, gun rights advocates are blasting the law. “You should also tell them your social media accounts because New York wants to thoroughly investigate you to see if you’re one of these dangerous law-abiding citizens who are taking over the country and causing the crime spike,” says Jared Yanis, host of the YouTube channel Guns & Gadgets, in a widely viewed video about the new law. “What are we up to?” Hochul, who has also tasked the state police with rooting out online extremism, did not immediately respond to a list of questions about the social media requirement, including how the state would address concerns about freedom of speech and privacy. “Often the sticking point is: How can we enforce this?” Metro State University criminal justice professor James Densley, co-founder of the research initiative The Violence Project, said. “I think it’s starting to open a little bit of a can of worms, because nobody knows the best way to do it.” It can be difficult, he said, to decipher social media posts from younger people, who might just express themselves by posting a music video. “What will become difficult is to what extent is this expression and to what extent is this evidence of wrongdoing?” Densley said. Representatives for social media platforms Facebook, Twitter, 4Chan and Parler did not immediately respond to requests for comment. New York should instead consider giving the job to a trained team tasked with figuring out how best to reach people online who show signs of radicalization or trauma and may need help, Patton said. “There’s a lot of nuance and contextual issues. We talk differently, how we communicate, that could be misunderstood,” Patton said. “I’m concerned that we don’t have the right people or the right tools to do this in a way that’s helpful in actually preventing violence.” Adam Scott Wandt, a professor of public policy at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said he supports gun control but worries the New York law could set a precedent for mandatory disclosure of social media activity for people who seek other types of licenses from the state. New York’s law is rushed and vague, said Wandt, who teaches law enforcement personnel how to conduct searches on people through social media. “I think what we could have done as a state here in New York is, we may have confirmed their worst fears — that there’s going to be a slippery slope that will slowly erode their rights to bear arms and allow a bureaucracy to decide, based on vague criteria, who can have a gun and who can’t,” Wandt said. “Exactly what the Supreme Court was trying to avoid.”
