In New York, you don’t expect people to have guns

It’s easy to pretend that New York is its own cosy enclave. But every now and then, something like the shooting in Times Square happens to remind you that you actually live in America, writes Holly Baxter

A four-year-old girl and her mother were shot while out shopping for toys last weekend (Getty)

Living in New York City doesn’t often feel like living in America. A lot of things that exist in the wider country – trailer parks, school shootings, NRA meetings, meth labs, cowboys, Confederate flags – are either nonexistent or vanishingly rare within the urban boundaries. Though most things Fox News hosts like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens says are – in the words of Joe Biden – complete malarkey, it’s true that “East Coast liberals” don’t know the same America as suburban midwesterners, Bible Belt evangelists, ranchers in Wyoming or farmers in Kansas.

That means you come to expect a different kind of lifestyle to what you might find in Texas, Tennessee or Montana. You expect that most people you meet will vote Democrat and bemoan the healthcare system. You expect fewer lawns and windows adorned with American flags, and schools that don’t make the Pledge of Allegiance compulsory every morning. You expect to be within walking distance of a vegan cafe and a tasteful sex shop at all times. And above all, you expect that the people around you, for the most part, don’t have guns.

That’s not to say that guns are a rarity in New York City. During 2020, gun crime rose to the highest it had been in 15 years here, with a single gang in Brooklyn suspected to be behind 26 murders. Applications for gun licenses also doubled, according to the NYPD.