Glimmers of Progress in New York City Carry Permitting Scheme?

The New York Post is probably the most conservative paper in the Big Apple, but even with its rightward tilt I was pretty surprised (and delighted) to see the headline “Why New Yorkers from all walks of life can put a gun on their holiday wish list” in the Post’s opinion pages. 

The column by New Criterion executive editor James Panero is an outstanding look at the relatively small, but growing, culture of legal gun ownership in the Big Apple from the perspective of a relatively new NYC carry permit holder, and will likely be an eye-opening read for many New Yorkers. 

Panero writes that twelve months ago he could never imagine navigating NYC’s “byzantine gun laws” or fathom the “peace of mind that comes with firearms ownership,” but he has embraced his Second Amendment rights and found a second home in the firearms community. 

Sure, we’ve heard the stories of onerous regulations, invasive questioning and endless delays. Compared with much of the country, the application process remains a burden.

But I am here to tell you it is no longer impossible.

As I found, it can even be a rewarding experience.

And if you want that Centennial-style hammerless Airweight in your stocking, you first need a license to carry it. 

Panero took his required 18 hours of training at the Westside Rifle & Pistol Range, which is the only publicly accessible range in Manhattan. And though it took months for the NYPD Licensing Bureau to process his application, Panero says the officers he dealt with were  al “friendly and professional.”

With the testing done and paperwork submitted, I received my appointment for police fingerprinting.

A few months later, my temporary approval came in, which meant I could finalize the process of getting my dad’s revolver on my license.

In many states, you can simply walk into a gun shop and walk out with a pistol. You can also inherit a firearm like anything else.

Not so in New York. Each firearm must pass through a dealer and be registered to your license before it can be released.

You can also only register one firearm every 90 days. Again, Westside shepherded this process along for me and held onto my pistol until it was cleared.

But I got it, and my concealed-carry license arrived in the mail.

The approval meant I could join the Westside range and shoot whenever I liked.

Frankly, I’m shocked that Panero was able to navigate the licensing process in less than a year, given the multiple ongoing lawsuits against the NYPD over licensing delays. Still, even waiting a few months for government permission to exercise a fundamental civil right is beyond the pale, and I hope that the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division’s Second Amendment Section has a new year’s resolution to challenge the licensing scheme that New York City residents are subjected to. 

I appreciate Panero’s first-hand account of obtaining a permit to carry, and I hope that many of the Post’s readers will follow his lead. The multiple impediments that New York City puts between residents and their Second Amendment rights, though, will dissuade some of those who are interested in legally bearing arms from doing so. Not everyone can afford to carve out 18 hours for the required training, and the hundreds of dollars that New York City charges concealed carry applicants is another barrier for those on fixed incomes or the lower rungs of the economic ladder. 

More than three years after the Bruen decision, New York continues to treat the right to bear arms as a privilege. Challenges to the post-Bruen gun laws are ongoing, and some of them could reach the Supreme Court next year. My hope is that before long the Court will deliver another smackdown to the city and state’s gun control regime… and that obtaining a concealed carry license won’t be a newsworthy event in the Big Apple because it will be so commonplace. 

Editor’s Note: Christmas is coming a little early here at Bearing Arms! 

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