Ask almost any New Yorker about guns and you’ll get a strong opinion. Now, new numbers from the NYPD show more city residents than ever are trying to legally carry one. At the Earnest Training Center, instructor Kevin Earnest lines up students in front of a table of paint rounds and a bright blue training pistol. The tools are fake — but the lessons, he says, are meant to mimic the real thing. “This is a training gun,” he explains over the crack of simulated gunfire. “Anything can happen in NYC. So it’s always best to be prepared — you can never be overprepared.” Earnest is an NRA-certified instructor who runs a gun-safety course for New Yorkers applying for concealed carry permits. Since a 2022 Supreme Court ruling reshaped New York’s gun laws, he says demand for his classes has surged. According to an analysis of NYPD data by the nonprofit news outlet THE CITY, more than 17,000 New Yorkers have been approved for concealed carry permits since 2022 — a dramatic jump from the fewer than 4,000 permit holders before the law changed. That shift followed the Bruen decision, which struck down parts of New York’s decades-old concealed carry restrictions and expanded where licensed gun owners can carry. Earnest says that change has brought a wide range of people into his classroom. “I have regular citizens,” he said. “I do have some security officers that are unarmed and wish to be armed.” For some students, the motivation is straightforward. “To defend ourselves… to defend our family,” one man said. Others see it as a matter of fairness, pointing to looser gun laws in other parts of the country. “If you have it down south, what’s the difference for New Yorkers?” another person asked. “It don’t make sense.” But in The Bronx — a borough that has some of the highest rates of gun violence in the city — not everyone is convinced that more permits will make neighborhoods safer. “In The Bronx? I don’t think so,” one woman said when asked about the rise in legal guns. Earnest argues that the people going through the lengthy permitting process are not the ones communities should be worried about. “Ideally, the people who conceal carry are law-abiding citizens,” he said. “They’re not breaking the law.” Getting to that point isn’t easy. Applicants must complete a 16-hour classroom training course and two hours of live-fire training, fill out extensive paperwork and pass an NYPD review of their “good moral character.” Between training fees, range time and application costs, the process can quickly climb into the hundreds of dollars. For some, that raises another question: whether the system puts too many burdens on people trying to follow the law — while illegal guns continue to flow into the city. “Why does it take so long to protect ourselves when criminals out here just do what they want — and there’s really no repercussions?” Earnest said. As more New Yorkers sign up for classes and submit permit applications, the debate over guns in the five boroughs is shifting from the streets to the classroom — and to the city’s courts and lawmakers. For now, the questions remain: Will more legal guns in holsters make New Yorkers feel safer? Or will it leave a city already divided over gun violence feeling even more split over how to stop it?