6After years of complaints by all but the most ardent anti-gun activists, New York City’s insanely strict gun laws are finally being exposed for the unconstitutional mess they are after two separate incidents in December in which tourists, with all the proper permits from their home states, were arrested for possessing firearms.
In the first case, a man visiting from California was boarding a plane at LaGuardia and traveling with a legally-licensed gun that was being transported according to federal aviation law. When he declared the gun that was in his checked baggage, he was arrested for illegally carrying a firearm in NYC.
A week later, a woman visiting from Tennessee, with a legal carry permit from her home state, was arrested while visiting the 9/11 memorial. Upon seeing a sign that said “no guns allowed” she approached a police officer to inquire where she could check the .32 caliber pistol she carried in her purse.
Both of them are facing the possibility of serious jail time, stiff fines and huge legal bills, even while making every effort to comply with the law as understood. This is so clearly an egregious application of our overly restrictive gun laws that even Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver has called for leniency and a review of NY’s gun laws to make sure they make sense. When NY’s biggest industry is tourism, we can’t jeopardize our standing as one of the nation’s top attractions.
Putting aside the constitutional issues for a moment, we should have reciprocity with the other 49 states for visiting gun owners. We have reciprocity in dozens of other areas that are not even rights, but privileges. In NY, we recognize drivers’ licenses from any state, marriage contracts (including same- sex marriages), and all sort of other arrangements. Imagine if we arrested people driving through the state for not getting a license here, or if we refused to allow a spouse to visit their loved one in the hospital because we refused to recognize a marriage contract from another state.
That is the equivalent of what we do in NY. In fact, NYC’s laws are so much more restrictive than those even at the state level, that a hunter living on Long Island could be arrested while driving upstate with his rifles to go hunting.
We need to remember that the right to own a gun is protected by the constitution. The idea that every visitor should understand NY’s byzantine and oppressive gun laws is ludicrous. We should respect those that want to exercise their second amendment rights while making every effort to comply with basic, common sense gun laws. That includes for NY citizens as well, but that is another issue.
Robert Hornak is a Queens-based political consultant, blogger, and an active member of the Queens Republican Party.
[...] of the ending clause. Thankfully, the courts are finally seeing cases that expose many of the more excessive laws for what they are… unconstitutional and in gross violation of the letter of the law as well [...]
I just read this article after reading about a man in Queens who pulled out a pistol after being frustrated with the supply of gas after the destruction of SANDY. You don’t even have to ask if the statute is unconstitutional. It it. It’s a statute no law. All it does is allow criminals to carry on and honest law abiding individuals are stripped from their right to bear arms making them easy targets.
It’s really sad when California has more understanding of constitutional rights than NY. My family and I travel every year and NYC and LA are the two cities on my map that are crossed out. I’d never put my family in danger and would never put myself in a position where I could not defend myself and others.
Whack jobs target gun free zones like the shooter in Colorado, all the campus shootings. Almost every tragedy starts with a gun free zone and some nut job on some form of mind altering Rx medication.
Why do the people of NY allow themselves to be disarmed? More guns in the hands of law abiding citizens means less violence. Where I live, you would have to be high on speed to have the mental capacity to rob someone. You assume the owner of the home is armed, the driver is armed and everybody at the gas station and grocery store is armed. Would you want to be a bad guy when all the good guys have guns and are trained since childhood how to safely operate firearms?
If you ever turn your draconian statutes into law, make sure it is equally enforced. Equality is paramount and mandatory in a free society. First thing that would need to happen is Bloomberg’s security detail would have to surrender their fully automatic assault rifles and turn in their semi automatic pistols. Politicians have no more rights than the people they serve. If the police can carry, so can you.
Ultimately, they want to disarm you so they can tax your labor to the point that you are a slave. You will not be able to revolt from this. You will be throwing stones at private contractors with heavy firepower.
Wake up NY! You have a beautiful state and millions of people who refuse to visit you because of your statutes.
Good luck!
NW Montana
NYC gun laws were written by white liberals who live in segregated all white doorman buildings or in gated all white neighborhoods, with armed guards.Bloomberg the billionaire who wants to disarm everyone lives on the Lilly white upper east side of manhattan surrounded by armed goons.I am 40 years old and have lived in nyc all my life and I can tell you everything in this city is illegal! No guns for law abiding citizens but criminals have zero problem getting one.I will contribute nothing to nyc I buy nothing and never eat out I hate it here and will leave for Arizona soon.In Arizona everyone who is law abiding can carry a concealed handgun without a license or permit.Last I heard arizona is cleaner and safer and all around a billion times more American than nyc.Nyc gun laws are uncontionstual and were enacted by communist liberals to pave the way towards state control of all aspects of our lives.Bloomberg is an arrogant scum who bought his office with over 100 million of his ill gotten funds.Bloomberg is a petty dictator who should be impeached.
[...] – 1/3/12: Politics Aside: Are NYC’s Gun Laws Unconstitutional? Share this: Subscribe to Blog via [...]
Anyone who is the victim of a home invasion and was unable to protect them selves due to the NYPD’s pressure to remove firearms for their own paranoid whimsy, should then hold the city accountable for their vulnerability, and do so to the extent that it becomes economically unsound, for that is the only way legislators will listen to reason.
Benjamin Franklin (sometimes Thomas Jefferson) is often quoted as saying: Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
Anyone who trusts the NYPD to be when and where they need them is INSANE. Laws telling law-abiding citizens they cannot own a firearm in their own home without leaping through countless hoops and red-tape of “official” bureaucratic oppression are unwarranted, unconstitutional, and hazardous to public safety.
The right to bear arms is number two, not ten, twenty or fifty down on the list, but TWO (2) . “The right of the people” are words spelled out quite clearly. It’s way up there between freedom of speech and unreasonable search and seizure. An apparently common opinion that “I don’t like guns, so let’s get rid of them” is no excuse trample over this nation’s most treasured staple of freedom.
[...] an astir member of the borough politico Party. By parliamentarian Hornak RHornak@queenscourier.comQueens Courier » OpinionTags: Aside, Laws, NYC’s, Politics, unconstitutional Previous Post NY1 ItCH: A Short ItCH Before [...]