One of us is a police leader who headed police agencies in three cities, including twice in New York City, successfully reducing violent crime in each venue. The other is a lifelong public policy advocate seeking ways to reduce violence, including having helped lead the successful fights to pass the Brady Bill, ban on assault weapons and ban on large magazines. We have both worked on many different violent crime issues, and we have worked together in different cities in the United States and in Latin America. The one common element we see in every place we go where violence is high is how the easy availability of firearms drives violence. This is irrefutable. Our own city, New York, is currently in the grip of an alarming rise in shootings and murders which threatens to further destabilize an already shaken city. The NYPD last year seized a record number of guns and this year is on track to do the same. Coincidentally, or perhaps not so coincidentally, 2020 saw a record number of gun sales nationwide, and 2021 is on track to see the same. We are awash in a sea of firearms and New York must rely on its own legal structures to try to stem this flow of guns. Recent action by the U.S. Supreme Court accepting for review a case challenging New York's gun licensing system threatens to make an already perilous situation even more dangerous. The challenged law, the so-called Sullivan Law, traces its roots back to the early 20th century at another time when sensational gun crimes, including the attempted assassination of Mayor William Gaynor, were dominating the headlines. State Sen. Timothy Sullivan successfully introduced legislation, which passed in 1911, requiring that anyone seeking to purchase a handgun would be required to obtain a police-issued license. And under the law now, in order to carry that weapon concealed, the licensee has to demonstrate, in essence, a heightened need to carry the weapon for self-defense. The current lawsuit, brought by two people who sought permits and backed by the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association argues that the Second Amendment prohibits the state from imposing these conditions on those who seek a license to carry. At the very moment New York is in the midst of a crisis of violent gun crime, the very last thing we need is more guns in our city and no control over who is permitted to carry concealed.