By the time the Niagara County Courthouse opened on Wednesday morning, 150 people were lined up to apply for permits that would let them carry concealed handguns. Nearly 100 had camped out overnight, with some staying awake in folding chairs, taking walks at intervals to keep warm.
The permitting office at the county courthouse, located in Lockport, N.Y., has been processing about 150 applications every day this week, officials said, part of a spike in demand before most provisions of New York’s new gun law go into effect on Thursday. Similar lines have formed outside permitting offices around the state ahead of the new rules, which are designed to tightly control firearms after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a century-old law regulating guns that was among the nation’s strongest.
