Underneath the glaring, copper patina eyes of Lady Liberty the City of New York has its new mayor. 

What was once a long-shot campaign from a relatively low-key Astoria Assemblymember started a political firestorm in the Big Apple that pulled nearly 2 million people to the polls, a remarkable turnout that hasn’t happened since 1969. There is no denying this election has put the country on notice in more ways than one. 

A key topic of his campaign was the protection of working class members of society. The hard workers who rise in the morning and do not return until the day is done. What remains unclear is just what he will try and enact involving the public's ability to actually protect themselves. 

Following in the wake of such political figures such as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Mamdani’s election furthers a political shift that has been building for years. 

His success was aided by a relatively weak opponent in Andrew Cuomo, the recently disgraced and ousted former Governor of New York, whose seedier side may have pushed many New Yorkers to vote for the up and coming self-styled Democratic-Socialist in Mamdani. Nevertheless, he won and he did so in a big way. 

A Democratic candidate of his caliber has long been the natural predator of second amendment activists, and the recent mayor-elect looks to be no different. What his approach does ignore is the will of many left-leaning citizens that have increasingly taken up arms and exercised their second amendment rights. 

There is no denying that the majority of gun owners can roughly be placed along party lines. Right-leaning people just own more guns, but left-leaners are catching up and according to one poll it’s happening fast.

In 2004, NBC News reported that around 33% of more left-leaning people owned guns. In 2019, that number jumped to an astounding 41%. An almost 10% gain in a world that has a tendency to do everything slow and steady. It’s important to also remember those numbers are pre-pandemic. 

Crisis and political instability in the ensuing years have undoubtedly had an effect on that number. The rise until 2019 could be attributed to a number of things, such as political fears, growing crime in certain neighborhoods, just general interest, but there is no denying it is gun ownership in Mamdani’s own base is rising. 

Policies that place strict restrictions on the ownership of firearms will undoubtedly hurt everyone on either side of the political divide, including many of the 2 million voters who broke record numbers to go out and vote for Mamdani.

Gun control is a quick and dirty term pretending to be a big man when really it rests on the shoulders of the real giants of gun violence. 

Many blue state politicians believe that restricting their own citizens will curtail gun violence, but the truth is those that feel the need to have a firearm to cause violence have many ways to get them instead. Most can go out of state to purchase them, find them illegally, or any number of other means to acquire a gun. 

It is obvious by the current trajectory of left-leaning gun owners there is some threat, or even just interest, perceived that is causing this rise. Ignoring this base ignores not only the constitution, but the American urge to feel safe and protected in modern times.

Not only does gun control generally ignore that ability for criminals to secure a weapon, it also doesn’t account for what the statistics really tell us.

The majority of those who die every year in American due to gun violence are those who commit suicide. In 2023 alone, over 58% of all gun-related death’s in America were due to suicide. That adds up to 27,300 people. Murders are second, accounting for 38% of gun related fatalities, or 17,927 people. If we reduce that down to the fundamental essence of what lawmakers need to focus on, it is not the ownership of weapons, but rather the quality of life that many face in this country.

Poverty is an endless loop that can trap generations of people in a cycle of violence. Increasingly, discouraged youths are taking up arms to fight over their little slice of hell, becoming embroiled in drugs and petty disputes where the end result is either their death at the hands of someone else or their own. Taking guns out of the hands of responsible citizens will not solve this problem. It is applying a bandaid over a vast issue that stretches across the U.S. from coast to coast and casts a long shadow over the future.

Where there are hard times there will always be violence and despair. Even those who aren’t inclined to suicide or general violence can feel it on both sides of the party. It pervades the news, idle conversation with a neighbor or family member, the ads in the mailbox threatening what might happen should you not hire them to install cameras all over your home. 

It is felt at the grocery store, the gas station, and the waiting room at the hospital. It is felt at the counter of the gun store, when an average everyday American decides to purchase a firearm to defend themselves. Increasingly, that person is more likely to be a member of Mamdani’s own party. 

None of this would end if tomorrow all the guns in the world were zapped from the safes and display cases of every home or gun store in the entire world. The underlying problems that we have built our future would still shift like sand beneath our feet. After all the guns are gone, people will still feel the same unease they did at the gun counter. The same despair will grip those who need support that most and don’t have it.

The future must be built by those who will protect the rights enshrined to us in the Constitution while recognizing that it is not those same rights that are holding us back, but rather a relaxing of the attitudes that helped build this country and hoist it up in times of need. The people need jobs and hope. They need to know that they won’t be replaced. Nothing is coming to an end and there is a bright future ahead of us.

Answering the question of how we reach that future is a hard one, but we won’t get there by stripping Americans of their ability to feel safe in today’s world. We will get there by coming together as Americans and deciding that it is time to get to work to make things better. When that happens, the gun violence will trickle away like darkness receding away from the morning light. Somewhere out there is an answer to how we improve the lives of American’s, but in no way is the question solved by stripping them of the right to protect themselves in uncertain times.

All eyes are on Mamdani and what he will do with the opportunity presented to him. The question remains whether he will waste years of his, and New Yorker’s, life on fruitless attempts at gun control, or actually spend in giving hope and opportunity to Americans who are in need of a brighter future.