New York City is the antithesis of the American spirit when it comes to the Second Amendment. They have the worst laws for the ownership of and carrying guns. For those of you in the freer parts of the country, here’s a quick summary of what’s involved: you need a permit to purchase any gun, you need an owner permit for ammo, you need to register every gun you own, “assault weapons” are banned, NFA items are banned, 80% lowers and frames are banned, and of course, you need a permit to carry in a minefield of “gun-free zones,” any violation of which can land you in prison. The last time I checked, a carry permit cost $340 for 3 years, which translates to an annual tax of ~$115 on a constitutionally protected right. Getting a permit also entails letters of reference, onerous training, and fingerprinting, as if the applicant is a convicted Level 3 predicate sex offender.

Violating the law gets the book thrown at you. In the recent past, we have seen a case of a 65-year old Charles Foehner,  who had a valid gun permit but had extra guns not registered on his permit and has been charged for that. There was also another man who had an early morning SWAT raid for making his own gun, something that’s been a right since before the Founding, and had to forfeit all his guns because of it.

While the citizens get the proverbial shaft of constitutional infringements, law enforcement treats their own differently (archived links):

NYC sheriff fired over strip club work gets controversial green light for gun permit
Michael Gartland, New York Daily News

New York City Sheriff Anthony Miranda gave his stamp of approval for a gun permit to a disgraced former sergeant sacked more than a decade ago after lying about being sick while moonlighting as a strip club bouncer, according to several sources who spoke to the Daily News.

Ex-Sgt. Jefferson “Bumpy” Rodriguez is now back in the good graces of the city Sheriff’s Office, said the sources, who are now ringing the alarm over Miranda signing off on a so-called “good guy” letter for his pal Rodriguez. The document serves as confirmation to an agency that the holder of the letter is in good standing to obtain a firearm.

The sources said Miranda’s green light came after his three predecessors declined giving Rodriguez the letter, an official missive typically used to demonstrate that a former law enforcement officer remains in good standing.

“After three sheriffs refused to give him his ‘good guy’ letter for just cause, Miranda comes in and in the first weeks hands it to him,” said one outraged source in the Sheriff’s Office. “There’s a reason they denied him before.”

For retired law enforcement workers, a “good guy” letter — or pistol license inquiry response, as it’s more formally known — functions as a certificate to obtain a gun permit, often a requirement for working private security jobs.

Rodriguez rose to the rank of sergeant while at the Sheriff’s Office, but was drummed out of the agency in 2010 after an administrative court judge found he lied about working a side gig as an armed security guard at the Queens strip joint CityScapes — a job the judge concluded he didn’t receive authorization from the Sheriff’s Office to take.

The hearing officer found Rodriguez also lied about being too injured to work for eight months — even though he was reporting for duty at the jiggle joint at the time — and recommended that Rodriguez be fired.

After the ruling, the Sheriff’s Office terminated Rodriguez.

Rodriguez was fired for a non-violent violation of his terms of employment. Whether peaceable citizens convicted of nonviolent crimes should be prohibited persons is being fleshed out in Range v. Garland. Objectively speaking, Rodriguez has not committed any crime of violence and should not be prohibited from possessing or purchasing guns. But this is where I have a real problem:

Miranda and Rodriguez have been close for years, sources said.

Their families have shared meals together, they said, and the two built a bond in part through the National Latino Officers Association, which Miranda co-founded with disgraced former state Sen. Hiram Monserrate (D-Queens).

“They have a relationship that goes back years,” one of the sources said. “They have a close relationship.”

Even the slightest bit of discretion brings in corruption or cronyism, and we’re seeing evidence of that yet again. If you’re a poor black male in New York City, you’re essentially disenfranchised from your right to keep and bear arms through onerous training requirements and burdensome fees. The letters of reference you provide may not satisfy the powers that be. But if you know people in government, there’s a magical way around all of it.

Gun controllers complain a lot about Bruen. Law professors have started making loud noises against it. But time and time again, we see evidence that Bruen was the right call, and the text/history/tradition test was a necessary constitutional cathartic.