New York State gun laws - some advice?

[ZainAnak]

Hey all. Let me preface this by saying I am well aware this is not formal legal advice I will be receiving, and that I of course plan to comply with all local laws before committing to any course of action.

So, with that out of the way...

I've long been interested in options I'd have if I move to New York. City, to be exact. Now, before you recoil in horror, hear me out.

My current collection consists of three long guns (M1A, AR, and Rem 700), two handguns (1911 and P22), and two shotguns (Mossberg 930s). I know New York State has much laxer laws than the City itself, so I was always wondering if it'd be a viable option to rent a storage facility on, say, Long Island or in Westchester County, and merely go pick them up for range days and not travel through the city with them.

I know that shotguns and rifles do not require a permit, so I may be s&^% out of luck on the handguns.

So, thoughts?

 

[HKdrummer]

I dont know much of anything about NY laws but I do know that in terms of NYC its not an option. My buddy tried to get a Lic. when he moved there, they laughed and said unless your rich or famous take a hike.....

 

[HooVooLoo]

Hey all. Let me preface this by saying I am well aware this is not formal legal advice I will be receiving, and that I of course plan to comply with all local laws before committing to any course of action.

So, with that out of the way...

I've long been interested in options I'd have if I move to New York. City, to be exact. Now, before you recoil in horror, hear me out.

My current collection consists of three long guns (M1A, AR, and Rem 700), two handguns (1911 and P22), and two shotguns (Mossberg 930s). I know New York State has much laxer laws than the City itself, so I was always wondering if it'd be a viable option to rent a storage facility on, say, Long Island or in Westchester County, and merely go pick them up for range days and not travel through the city with them.

I know that shotguns and rifles do not require a permit, so I may be s&^% out of luck on the handguns.

So, thoughts?

Assuming you'd have to move to NYC for some sort of work-related issue, you would be in a far greater world of gunlove if you try to move to the CT area around the CT/NY border (and that is not saying much). The travel time from the CT/NY border to Midtown would be the same as if you lived on LI. Hell, you could even live upstate and have a good commute, taking the MetroNorth rails.

Storing them on LI would be like a checkmate, since you would HAVE to travel through NYC to go anywhere, unless you take a ferry from Port Jeff, Orient Point or the like. And that is pricey and dicey, since you would wind up in MA, RI or CT. Not a feasible option.

Bottom line...If you wish to legally keep your firearms, stay out of NY. The Empire state is a world of trouble for firearms licensees. And NYC is, of course, the most insanely-restrictive city in the 50 states, after Chicago.

 

[ZainAnak]

While I appreciate the input, neither of these posts covered the actual situation I'm describing - all I want to know is if I can live in the city, store firearms in a storage facility outside the city, take them out to shoot, return them, go back home. Not looking for alternative locations or facts on why I can't store them in NYC!

 

[BradM]

I'd think you'd have more success in the New York Law section of this website.

 

[caboose84]

Ownership of a handgun *anywhere* in New York state requires a license.

New York also bans "assault weapons", ie your AR for certain and possibly your M1A.

See http://www.nraila.org/statelawpdfs/NYSL.pdf

 

[terraformer]

I doubt there is a direct answer to your question. This is the type of edge case legislatures don't write laws for and prosecutors love to make law with. You will need to look at NYS law and determine if possession is prohibited by NYC residents without a permit. Even if it is not, NYC law is baked into NYS law and as such, just because you are not in NYC at the moment you have them, does not mean you are automatically not covered by NYC law in other parts of the state. Plus other jurisdictions may be able to enforce NYC law via the laws NYS adopted to allow NYC to cordon itself off.

I would highly recommend not doing this. Do you have friends with a place on the island? If so, I would store them there with them.

If not, you may want to look at PA as an alternative location for your storage unit. You are the same distance from the pocconos as you are from eastern long island where the outdoor ranges are time wise from NYC. I don't know what the legal issues of that though are. I suspect it is equally sketchy.

 

[Climbnsink]

Disclaimer- I haven't lived in NY in ten years, so this is all rumor. I think you are out of luck with the handguns if you have a NYC address. Your plan with the long guns should work, but beware fairly recently NYS adopted a state AWB. I believe ten+ round mags are illegal now, not sure if there is a preban option and I'm not sure if there is an evil features list. I was surprised to hear this as NY had been, PIA for handgun permits, no worries for long arms. Sucks.

 

[amb]

I know New York State has much laxer laws than the City itself, so I was always wondering if it'd be a viable option to rent a storage facility on, say, Long Island or in Westchester County, and merely go pick them up for range days and not travel through the city with them.

Warning: my experience isn't very current but I think nothing substantial has changed.

Lots of people do the out-of-town storage dodge. There are (were?) also shops and ranges happy to handle storage for you for people who didn't want to deal with the city's hassle for long guns. The state as a whole still has a copy of the old federal AWB, but NYC in particular has some extra stupid long gun laws that the rest of the state doesn't have. (That said, I don't know that the issue has ever come up in court.) Your AR in NYC is an absolute no-go, but if it's ban-compliant it should be good in the rest of the state.

Handguns are a different problem, since possession in the entire state is prohibited anyway without a license. "Everybody knows" that it's impossible to get a handgun license in NYC, but the reality was that if you were a reasonably upstanding citizen willing to jump through the hoops you could get a target shooting or home-only license without much trouble. If you want a carry license, though, good luck, you'll need it, and you'll probably also want to talk to one of the many lawyers specializing in those applications. (Note that you need a gun-specific endorsement on the city license for each gun you own, too.)

As for alternatives, depending on what exactly you're looking for Westchester County isn't far at all. Same for Long Island, but anything on LI close to NYC is going to be soulless suburban strip-mall hell or soulless gated community hell. (OK, there are exceptions, but not that many.)

 

[Climbnsink]

Just to add if you are going to live on LI make sure you love LI, getting off the island can be a bitch. And getting around on the island can be rather painful as well.