Navigating New York State’s maze of gun laws is a punishing exercise; permit privileges vary by county and even in a “full carry” county such as Monroe, there are exceptions. New York City is a different ballgame altogether.
Diane Watkins, a teacher in the Rochester school district and former candidate for City Council, got caught in this complicated web earlier this year. She was arrested in May after a loaded handgun was allegedly found in her purse while Watkins was on a school field trip to New York City. She was charged with second-degree criminal possession of a weapon — a felony.
She declined comment on this story.
Pistol permits, issued by the county in which the applicant lives, are not valid in New York City. In Monroe County, the prohibition is stated right on the permit. Permit holders in Monroe County are allowed to carry their handgun, but it must be concealed; New York does not allow open carry.
David Jenkins, founder and primary instructor of Rochester Personal Defense, says a good guideline is that no one should be able to tell that you’re carrying a gun.
Rochester Personal Defense offers self-defense, firearm, and pistol-permit training to citizens and law enforcement.
And there are legal prohibitions on where you can carry, Jenkins says. For example, no guns are allowed in schools or courthouses, he says.
“If you have a firearm permit, you understand your rights and where you may carry and may not,” says Mike Mazzeo, president of the Rochester police union, the Locust Club.
It is almost impossible for a nonresident to get permission to carry a handgun in New York City, say Mazzeo and Jenkins. Neither is clear on the exact regulations, but Jenkins says that a special exemption would have to be granted from someone very high up the chain — likely the New York City police commissioner — in order for someone to legally carry a handgun in the city.
“It hasn’t been a big secret that New York City is not very gun friendly and they don’t want you to carry a gun there,” Jenkins says.
Watkins’ fate with the Rochester school district is uncertain. The district is conducting a review of the New York City incident, says Superintendent Bolgen Vargas in a letter to district families, students, and staff. And Watkins, a social studies teacher at STEM High School, “will not be working with students until this matter is resolved,” he says.
Vargas says he has no reason to believe that students were ever in danger.
This article appears in Aug 13-19, 2014.
The best advice is to stay out of New York City (for a lot of reasons).
New York State has passed a myriad of restrictive gun laws in order to discourage gun ownership. If enough laws are passed sooner or later a law-abiding gun owner will make an honest mistake, at which time the State will pounce on you. So the citizen who wishes to exercise their 2nd amendment right may think twice about risking a felony offence. NY gun laws haven’t made us safer and have not taken guns out of the hands of criminals or gang members. These people don’t obey any laws so they won’t register their guns. Citizens who make the effort to follow the ever-tightening gun restrictions are setting themselves up for extra scrutiny by the State. Even registering your firearm with the State puts you at risk to have them confiscated if the State ever makes owning a gun illegal. (The criminals will still have theirs). In 2013 the New York Journal News published the names and addresses of legal gun owners in Westchester. It would have been much more useful if they would have published the names of illegal gun owners, wouldn’t it? They are the ones we have to worry about. But law-abiding gun owners dutifully provided all of the information required by the State, only to have it released to the press. Supposedly this information is protected now, but only if you ‘opted out’ when you register your gun. The State still collects it and retains it for any future use. Anyway, we all know how safe our personal information is kept these days.
What the heck is going on here? Felony charges, media frenzy, and not allowed to be working with students? Why? Look, people are creatures of habit. Nobody’s been hurt in any way whatsoever. I’m definitely against gun proliferation, but this overreaction is absurd!
I don’t care what’s written on the permit. Getting caught up in complicated rules that vary from one county to the next is harassment. Until legal changes bring statewide agreement and simplification for legal gun owners, we’ll be less safe and more meddled with.
Actually, New York has only 5.1 gun deaths per 100,000 residents, the second lowest in the nation, according to the statistical map I just saw (link below). Many states still do not require background checks or do not prohibit sales to people with violent crime histories. Louisiana: 19.2 deaths per 100k; Alabama: 16.2; Mississippi: 16.1; Wyoming: 15.6; Montana: 15.1. Check it out here:
http://feature.rollingstone.com/feature/gun-control/map#deadPer100K
As long as handgun owners must register them with the state, why not have a lesser penalty for gun owners who inadvertently violate a local gun ordinance? If Diane Watkins has registered her handgun with NY State in Monroe County and carries it to New York City, why is she treated as if she has if she has no registration at all (a felony)? Many states recognize other state’s gun registration. Why can’t legally registered gun owners get some consideration within NY state?
As someone who works with students, I can’t imagine any reason why I would why I would ever carry a gun in their presence. It can only lead to trouble. I guess were fortunate that this is the only trouble there was.