This may surprise you, particularly if you spend a lot of time watching movies, but they don’t often see mass shootings in New York City like the one in midtown Manhattan Monday.
According to reports, the last time the city saw such a mass killing — which the FBI defines as four or more people being shot and killed in a single event — was in 2000, when five were shot and killed during a robbery at a Wendy’s in Queens.
There are reasons mass shootings are rare in New York. For one, there’s a ban on assault-style rifles in the state, much stricter than the semi-ban recently passed in Colorado, which, nevertheless, is quite strict by western state standards.
And while you’ll surely see many strange things on a walk around the city, you’re more likely to bump into a Times Square cowboy dressed only in his underwear than see someone carrying a semiautomatic weapon in midtown Manhattan.
Sadly, the shooter, identified as Shane Tamura, did carry such a gun in midtown. The gun has been described as an AR-15-style weapon, with which he killed four people, seriously wounded another and then used it to kill himself. He claimed to be suffering from CTE, a degenerative brain condition, but CTE can’t be identified without an autopsy. And, in a note, Tamura, who shot himself in the chest, apparently to make a brain scan possible, asked for his brain to be studied.
And yet, it’s hard to miss AR-15-style weapons elsewhere. According to data collected by the Washington Post and Ipsos, the AR-15 is the best-selling gun in America. One in 20 adults, approximately 16 million people if you count Lauren Boebert, own at least one AR-15.
Twelve of the 17 deadliest shootings since 2012 in the United States have involved an AR-15, including the ones at the Aurora theater and the Boulder King Soopers.
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There’s another reason for fewer mass shootings that is particular to Manhattan. The security at most New York office buildings, such as the one attacked, is extremely tight. A police officer working security was the first person killed. Also killed was a security guard. They are now being mourned as heroes.
So, should we write this mass shooting off as a bizarre incident committed by a person who clearly had mental health issues — and who, according to what we know from a note found in his wallet, was targeting National Football League offices because he believed he was suffering from CTE, which is often associated with playing football?
According to Mayor Eric Adams, who has seen the note, the shooter seemed to believe he was an ex-NFL player. It turns out he did play high school football, but that’s where his career apparently ended.
Or should we wonder, as New Yorkers must, that if it can happen there, it can happen anywhere? As we know, it has and it does and, according to the Washington Post count, the United States has averaged 25 mass shootings a year since 2006, although the numbers, it should be noted, are much lower this year.
You’d think the answer on what to do would be obvious.
But apparently it is not.
When Donald Trump wrote about the shooting on social media, he never mentioned guns. He did mention that the shooter was a “lunatic.” Well, the “lunatic” was able, according to reports, to buy a pistol in June in Nevada using his concealed-carry permit.
Meanwhile, Rep. Elise Stefanik, Republican and prominent Trump ally, took the opportunity to blast both New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate in the NYC mayoral race.
Five years ago, Mamdani, a socialist, called for defunding the police. He has since changed his stance on police — as you’d expect from a serious candidate in 2025 — which didn’t stop Stefanik from tweeting: “Kathy Hochul’s very own Commie Mamdani. A disgrace and truly unfit to be Mayor of NYC.”
Mamdani is not a commie. And Hochul went on CNN to defend Mamdani while taking on Stefanik, who may run for governor against her next year, for refusing to stand up to the gun lobby.
“You can’t say you’re tough on crime and be soft on guns,” Hochul said, adding: “I’m looking for political courage. I’m looking for people to stand up for the people of this nation and say, enough is enough. How much more slaughter do we have to endure?”
Was it too soon for Stefanik? I thought we were still in the thoughts-and-prayers stage of typical GOP reaction to mass shootings.
But can you really argue with Hochul?
When Jared Polis was arguing against a Colorado assault-weapons ban — even though he had voted for such a ban as a congressman — he said that only a nationwide ban could really take on the problem.
I disagreed then.The more states that restrict assault-style weapons, the better. But Polis is right to call for a nationwide ban.
We’re learning more by the hour about Tamura. He apparently drove from Nevada to New York, traveling through Colorado, to attack NFL headquarters. In his note, he cited the NFL’s dismal record on CTE.
After spraying gunfire around the lobby, killing two people, Tamura took an elevator he apparently thought would take him to the NFL offices. But he took the wrong elevator, and he ended up killing an executive with Blackstone and an employee of the building’s owner.
But the truth about the “lunatic,” is that we don’t know if he had CTE, which can only be diagnosed after death. According to experts, it is definitely possible for a high school running back like Tamura — who was small at 5-7 and 140 pounds and according to teammates, often took a beating — to develop CTE.
What we do know is that most CTE sufferers don’t end up shooting anyone, although several ex-NFL players with CTE have. We also know that most people with mental illness don’t end up shooting anyone.
But it’s very difficult to pick out those who end up being mass shooters. Red flags aren’t enough. Even red flag laws aren’t enough.
What’s crazy is that we have so many guns in this country, and that so many of them are assault-style weapons, and that so many Americans die by gunfire each year.
And that we continue to do so little to change any of it.
Mike Littwin has been a columnist for too many years to count. He has covered Dr. J, four presidential inaugurations, six national conventions and countless brain-numbing speeches in the New Hampshire and Iowa snow. Sign up for Mike’s newsletter.
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