Just when you thought New York’s firearms law couldn’t get more imbecilic, a Manhattan Judge recently affirmed the denial of a concealed carry license application by a salesperson who lives in the Big Apple and sells security equipment, reports the New York Law Journal. The salesman, Cavalier Knight, is a resident of New York City and holds a Federal Firearms License, as well as being employed as a salesperson by Armored Mobility, a company that sells ballistic armor and related equipment. Knight “requested a license to carry a concealed handgun for self-defense and to protect his wares from theft.” . . .
The New York Police Department denied the request. Knight failed the New York political connections and wealth test for the exercise of constitutionally-protected rights “to show a special need for self-protection that was distinguishable from that of the general public or others in his profession and failed to produce required records relating to his business.” On a later administrative appeal, the NYPD went even further. New York Daily News quotes the NYPD ruling as stating:
“That claim is based upon pure speculation which is unsupported by any evidence,” the NYPD ruled last summer….
Police said Knight had worked for the company for four years without incident and failed to show how he’s in more danger than others selling things like handcuffs, batons and police uniforms.
Knight then took the matter to the court system, before Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Michael Stallman. (Note: using a nomenclature logic that rivals the self-proclaimed NY “SAFE” Act, the New York “Supreme Courts” are actually the trial-level general jurisdiction courts. The court of final appeal is called the “New York Court of Appeals“.) Justice Stallman, a Democrat, affirmed the NYPD’s earlier decision, leaving Cavalier Knight to languish in legally-enforced disarmament.
I hope the NYPD are correct in assuming that just because he hasn’t been attacked yet he’ll never be put in a situation where he’ll face the threat of death or grievous bodily injury. Maybe they figure he can just wear the ballistic armor he has in his inventory. Protection that some politicians would also restrict to law enforcement.
In other related news, Alternet.org reports that New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton recently requested hiring an additional 450 police officers last Sunday to combat ISIS terrorists.
Bratton explained that there is an “increased threat from ISIS using social media to recruit people not only to go to Syria to fight, but encouraging people … to attack police, to attack government officials, to basically brainwash them under their screwed-up ideology. That threat has expanded significantly in the now 16 months I’ve been police commissioner.”
Bratton continued, “We’re treating that threat so seriously, I’m going to put another 450 police officers – if we get the approval to increase the size of the police force – and I need to do it very very quickly – into our counterterrorism operations to increase the ability of our officers to protect critical sites around the city.” Bratton then blamed the threat on, “This crazy hijacking of the Muslim religion by these fanatics, twisting it into an ideology that’s all about hate and murder and killing.”
The Daily News also reported that a “the 450 figure was just what Bratton wanted for counterrorism, leaving the door open for a larger request during negotiations between the City Council and the Mayor’s Office.”
Right. NYPD needs 450 more officers because ISIS. But those of us with hundreds of hours of firearms training under our belt need not apply to carry a NAA .22 Short while in Gotham and, FOPA notwithstanding, will get to spend time in the lockup if we attract the attention of the local gendarmes while passing through the city on our way someplace else.
In the Big Apple as elsewhere, common sense is not so common.