It wasn't the dozens of arrests at an anti-ICE protest in New York City's Foley Square that led Council member Vickie Paladino to encourage her constituents to exercise their Second Amendment rights this week, though I wouldn't be surprised if she reiterates her call to arms in the wake of violence across the city this week, including the apparent firebombing of at least eight NYPD squad cars in Brooklyn on Wednesday night.
Instead, Paladino was motivated by a shocking home invasion in her district in Queens where two men posing as Amazon drivers tied up a family and stole an undisclosed amount of jewelry and cash.
“I want to remind my constituents that New Yorkers have a constitutional right to protect themselves,” Paladino said in a statement.
“I urge my constituents to avail themselves of their rights under the Second Amendment; my office is always available to assist constituents with obtaining firearm permits for premises or concealed carry,” she said Tuesday.
The conservative pol’s call to arms came as the NYPD on Wednesday released surveillance footage of the pair of wanted perps wearing baseball caps, with one of them carrying an Amazon box and the other wearing a bright-yellow vest, walking on the quiet residential block.
I have no problem with what Paladino said, but there are going to be issues for any resident who takes her advice. New York City makes it impossible for anyone to exercise their Second Amendment rights in a timely manner, and it could be well over a year before someone who applies for a permit to carry today is able to obtain one.
Those delays have been the subject of numerous lawsuits, including one filed in federal court back in March.
“The NYPD was not ready for the volume,” Jason Tsulis, a gun license holder and plaintiff in the suit, said. “They did not have the proper training.”
Mirel Fisch, the attorney who helped Tsulis get his concealed carry license, filed the federal lawsuit.
“Until there is a federal decision holding that an excessive delay violates the Second Amendment, it will take a significant amount of time until people can actually exercise their rights,” Fisch said.
Under state law, licensing officials must act within six months or give a good reason for delaying an applicant, which rarely happens, applicants said.
“The first named plaintiff, that was about 17 months,” Fisch said.
The wait for a permit to keep a gun in the home can be almost as long. As one resident complained to the city last year in response to a proposed rule allowing non-residents to apply for a NYC permit (a change, by the way, that only came after a lawsuit was filed by Gun Owners of America with Newsmax host Carl Higbie as the primary plaintiff):
It is all but impossible to get through on all of your phone lines to ask important questions and obtain the status of a pending application. I have my CCW, however, have been waiting for approval of my Premise Permit since 1/20/24 and are approaching the 11 month mark. I was called by my investigator (3) weeks ago and was told to keep watch for an E mail and have received nothing to date.
