Bloomy's gun-plan backfire

"This bill cuts red tape without reducing our ability to keep guns out of the hands of criminals," Bloomberg spokesman Jason Post said.

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I honestly can't fathom how they perceive what they do as making it more difficult for criminals to obtain firearms. I just can't wrap my mind around it.

Facepalm moment

Considering the insane amount of criteria they've got planned that a citizen can be denied a permit for, they could make the permits 2¢ if they wanted to.

They're apparently not planning on handing any out.

One thing that is not clearly mentioned. Is this a permit to carry a concealed handgun, or simply the permit to own one?

I have a friend who works for a City Councilman and the councilman told him point blank that majority will not vote to cut fees in a time of financial hardship (to say nothing of making it easier to obtain a handgun). Bloomberg is pushing the issue very hard, however, and the strength of that push is not apparent in the media. Bloomberg has been having emergency meetings with councilmen across the City desperately trying to convince them to go along with this. Reducing the fee is now Bloomberg's number one priority because he knows, and has told members of the City Council, that if the Supreme Court looks at New York City's pistol licensing scheme it WILL be struck down as it now stands. He is making a personal appeal and devoting enormous energy to trying to get this passed.

Hopefully the City Council is as willfully headstrong as D.C.'s leadership was prior to and during Heller. It will only serve to strengthen our hand when the inevitable challenge to NYC reaches SCOTUS.

Let's hope so, I've spent a full year now being gun free and it ain't no picnic. The hurdles you have to clear just to get a permit to own a handgun is insane.

Process Time

How long is it taking for NYPD to process and approve a NYC pistol license for most people with a clean record? I was just curious? I have read it is an expensive process but does it take three months, six months? I'm talking about someone who wants to keep a handgun at home for self defense and to take to the range.

I have a feeling the pistol licenses to carry for business owners may take longer than average, so don't worry about those.

NYC's gun laws are gonna fall either way. Like WeedWacker said,

I honestly can't fathom how they perceive what they do as making it more difficult for criminals to obtain firearms. I just can't wrap my mind around it.

Facepalm moment

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I completely AGREE. The logic behind it is utterly ridiculous.

Bloomie is a gun grabber.... local laws in teh District of Columbia, Detroit and a few others seemed to have been struck down. ...it is time to challenge NYC

local laws in teh District of Columbia, Detroit and a few others seemed to have been struck down.

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Why does Detroit keep coming up? It has never been any more difficult to buy a gun there than anywhere else in Michigan. Especially since MI is a preemption state.

Let me answer some of the questions:

There are 2 types of permits in NYC, premises permit and a carry permit.

Premises permit is not that difficult to get, although it requires a squeaky clean record (not even a moving violation, no debt of any kind, whatever the criteria is), several visits to NYPD Pistol Section, an extensive background check, a personal interview with a detective, fingerprints, and a $500 check.

A carry permit requires (in addition to all stated above) a "good cause". One has to prove he either carries large sums of money (I believe $25,000 min), or has documented threats against one's life. Plus, NYPD comes out and talks to your neighbors and co-workers whether it's OK that you have a pistol permit. So you better hope your neighbors like you. You also have to provide a notarized statement from your spouse that she approves that you want to have a pistol. Unless all these things come together, you will not see a carry permit. That's why out of the city of 9 million, only around 2,000 people have carry permits, and that includes retired cops and armed guards.

There's hope, however. The 2nd Amendment Foundation is suing New York to throw out the "good cause" clause as unconstitutional. Hope it makes its way through the courts soon.

And every time the subject is brought up, you see a figure attributed to the NYPD or to the feds that there are two million unlicensed unregistered handguns in New York City.

I call it the Prohibition Effect. Unreasonable control means loss of control.

The logic is simple. If the honest citizens are unarmed you can push them around and act thuggishly with impunity. Since only the criminals have guns, then you can gun them down and get away with it.

The NYPD could shoot someone duct taped to a chair and the mayor and top brass would find a way to rule it a justifiable shooting.

Anyone who lives here knows that they're basically another street gang, just better equipped.