Violent crime in New York City has been a growing concern over the last few years. And while it is probably common sense to avoid dark, secluded streets late at night, and to keep your doors locked to deter violent intruders, people are also required to be on high alert, and keep their heads on a swivel, even in the Big Apple’s crowded public spaces in the middle of the day.
For a while, recently, it seemed like we were hearing about trouble on the city’s subways on a near daily basis. But has that been a more recent problem, or has riding the rails beneath the city’s mean streets been a potential danger for some time?
If you are a franchise quarterback in the NFL, the subway has apparently been a danger since at least 2004.
FOX News recently reported former New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning announced that, as part of his football contract, he was forbidden to ride the New York subway. During an episode of Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli—a show that offers an alternative way to watch Monday Night Football, with commentary from brothers Peyton and Eli Manning and guests—older brother Peyton was surprised to hear that his sibling had only recently experienced his first ride on the NYC subway.
Peyton, also a former NFL quarterback, joked, “Eli, this was very shocking to me, I thought you were a man of the people. You’ve lived there since 2004. First time riding the subway? Disappointed.”
After assuring his brother he is, indeed, a “man of the people,” Eli revealed that he was prevented from the subway until after he had retired from playing for the Giants.
“It was in my contract when I was playing,” the younger Manning claimed. “I wasn’t allowed to ride the subway. I could get pushed in front of a train.”
Now, Eli is a large man. He is listed as 6’5” tall and weighed over 200 pounds during his playing days. He was an athletic, fit, strong professional football player whose job included smashing into other athletic, fit, strong professional football players, many of whom were even larger than Eli. But in the mind of the New York Giants football team, the NYC subway was too dangerous for its star quarterback.
If that’s the case, how is the average New Yorker or tourist expected to fare when they head underground?
Eli was drafted in 2004, so the other troubling aspect of this story is that the New York subway system has been perceived as inherently dangerous, at least by the New York Giants, going back two decades, since well before people began talking about New York’s rising violent crime problem over the last few years.
Of course, one can argue that the Giants were concerned because of all the money they would end up investing in a man who helped them win two Super Bowls. By the end of Eli’s 16-year playing career, the team had paid him nearly $130 million.
The average New Yorker or tourist, on the other hand, is probably more concerned with their health and wellbeing when utilizing mass transit than they are financial concerns. They don’t, after all, have the luxury afforded Eli, who no doubt avoided the subway by utilizing personal private transportation or team-supplied transit. New York’s more hardscrabble denizens can only rely on themselves, so what options do they have?
Sadly, because New York City is a rabidly anti-gun jurisdiction in a rabidly anti-gun state (at least when it comes to elected officials), the most effective means of protecting oneself from violent criminals—carrying a firearm—is generally not possible or extremely inconvenient, not to mention fraught with legal peril. For more than a century, New York City’s Sullivan Law kept most law-abiding citizens from being able to carry a firearm for personal protection.
When that law was struck down as unconstitutional in the landmark Bruen decision in 2022, New York State quickly pivoted to imposing new restrictions intended to circumvent Bruen, including prohibiting the carrying of firearms for self-defense in most public places even if one is able to acquire a permit to carry. All public transportation, including the subway, is subject to the state prohibition on carrying firearms; even with a permit. Furthermore, the Metro Transit Authority (MTA), which oversees the operation of the NYC subway, prohibits firearms on the subway in particular.
NRA, of course, filed suit against the “new” restrictions, and while there have been rulings against efforts to undermine Bruen, New York City remains an area where what law-abiding citizens can and cannot do with regard to carrying firearms for self-defense is murky, at best.
To make matters worse, it appears the New York City Police Department (NYPD), in the wake of the Bruen ruling, decided on a policy of treating law-abiding gun owners who are legally carrying firearms for self-defense as “presumptive” criminals, until “proven otherwise.”
All of these responses to Bruen are not just contrary to the ruling and the U.S. Constitution, they run contrary to popular opinion.
So, even though some deem the NYC subway too dangerous for a large, powerful professional athlete to utilize, both the city and state of New York are opposed to average citizens trying to ensure their protection from harm through the constitutionally protected right of carrying firearms.
In the parlance of the NFL, NRA will continue to act as a Steel Curtain in defense of our right to arms. New Yorkers lawfully going about their business on public transit should not have to fear unnecessary roughness. In spite of NYC being flagged repeatedly for illegal procedure when it comes to the Second Amendment, the city does not seem to care. Nonetheless, NYC will not be able to protect its unconstitutional laws from the blitz of public opinion and legal challenges forever. Eventually, city residents will have had enough of anarchic crime, and there will be a turnover when it comes to who decides the best approach to self-defense for law-abiding citizens. The people will then have the ball and the right to carry for long yards.
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