A Serious Fourth

It is not a sophisticated strategy.  Get onto the law books as many radical anti-gun laws as possible, and, as they freely admit to the press, some laws will stick and that will be the victory.  Burning American cities and establishing “free” and “autonomous zones” having fizzled out amongst the target audience on the left, the Anarchy Advocates have managed to engage the right in courtrooms from New York to California to Hawaii to Guam.

Not surprisingly, New York is ground zero for the Anarchy Experiments.  It took numerous laws to establish the battle grounds of cases like Gazzola v. Hochul and Antonyuk v. James.  “Bail reform.”  Marijuana legalization and retail outlet “licensing.'“  The National Guard in the NYC subway. Migrants, flung and piled about the streets like worn-out shoes overflowing a closet. Cycle after cycle of self-created “crises to public safety” that spawn expanded police presence and powers and emergency funding, while politicians proclaim “Our work will protect children” and “I promise to protect our communities.”

On Tuesday, July 2, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in Antonyuk v. James, directed the December 8, 2023 order of the Second Circuit be vacated and that the case be sent back to that intermediate court for further proceedings.

That same morning, a Magistrate of the Northern District Court in our case of Gazzola v. Hochul, directed discovery move foward between the parties with all due speed.  An organized, if somewhat ambitious, scheduling order issued.  And for the first time in our case, the State’s attorney did verbally acknowledge there will be “some pretty high level depositions,” unless she can get the case dismissed.  I said, “I do intent to depose the Governor, Kathleen Hochul.”  Approaching two years into Gazzola v. Hochul, we are now closer to depositions than the starting line. That pencil-in date is likely April 2025.

My sense of solid legal progress was short lived.

Yesterday afternoon the call came in I knew would be coming since SCOTUS on June 17, 2024 declined our fourth and legally terminal request for a preliminary injunction to stave off enforcement against federally-licensed dealers in firearms.  An FFL doing business in NY has now received a “Subpoena” for documents in relation to several of the exact 2022 laws that are the subject of Gazzola v. Hochul, including video recordings and “safe” storage.

Welcome to the next step in Hochul’s War against firearms owners and Second Amendment supporters in New York through an assault on federally-licensed dealers.

Already since May 31, 2022, more than 165 federally-licensed dealers in firearms across New York have either not renewed or otherwise turned in to the ATF their licenses, and have terminated sales in firearms.  The bullying tactic deployed since July 2023 was sending officers armed with a 31-point “Checklist” into FFLs from the New York State Police “Joint Terrorism Taskforce.”  The officers intentionally played dumb.  They preyed upon dealers’ public education-oriented personalities, and they got dealers to talk about all manner of concerns with the new 2022 laws.

Last summer, I blogged and blogged and emailed and had phone calls and meetings and said over and over: “Be Irish!  Say nothing!”  To which you said (for months), “It was fine.  They understand.  They didn’t indicate anything was wrong. It was just a conversation. They’re trying to learn.”  All I could say was: You’re not understanding that he NYSP is not the ATF.  The NYSP is a law enforcement division under the direction of Hochul. What they’re ‘trying to learn’ is how to prosecute you.

There is no satisfaction in saying, I told you so. I say it only because we need to draw in closer and pay attention. This is the next step in Hochul’s War on FFLs.

This particular “Subpoena” may have been issued somewhat in error. The State may have shown its hand prematurely. Yes, SCOTUS declined 17 months and four applications of requests for a preliminary injunction, but in no court and at no time did a judge indicate the challenges we present are incorrect.  What the Second Circuit essentially said in their December 8, 2023 decision in Gazzola v. Hochul is come on back if you need us, after you’re put the numbers into evidence at trial.

If I had to guess? Never in their wildest dreams did the State of New York attorneys think they would hear the district court say “No stay of discovery.”  The State’s intention is a standard defense tactic, which is to avoid discovery as long as possible. But, the Magistrate was as clear on July 3 as he was on June 18.  And those orders are that Gazzola v. Hochul is moving forward.

Antonyuk and Gazzola thus part ways from the parallel course we’ve been on since inception, and the State has lost control of both legal fronts on the same day.

Hopefully, this “Subpoena” was a premature reveal that allows us to now - finally - have the kinds of conversations that are necessary while these and several additional lawsuits are pending to try to better protect our FFLs, our concealed carry permit holders, and our Second Amendment rights, generally, in New York.

There will be much to share with you across the next several days.  I serve a signaling function in Hochul’s War against federally-licensed dealers in firearms doing business in New York.  Together, you and I have brought to light and examined the NYSP JTTF “31-point Checklist.”  Be prepared next week to start working on the “Subpoena.”  If there is any other FFL in NY who has received anything from the NYS AG’s Office other than the “Checklist,” will you please contact me ASAP?  The State tends to do things in small batches at individual Troop jurisdictional levels.  Starting with Albany to the Canadian border – what I call the “Hochul media zone,” or, somewhere she can get headlines.

If NYS Governor Kathleen Hochul had anything to do with supporting FFLs in doing their job to stop sales to persons disqualified, Hochul would at least report NYS-convicted felons to the FBI NICS to become part of the firearms sale background check system.  Instead, Hochul publicly vows never to do so.  The State’s attorneys have recently admitted as much in their Answer to our Complaint.

And this morning’s headlines shows NYS Gov. Hochul exiting the White House, big smile for the cameras. That’s FOX. Here’s C-SPAN, the NY Times, The Hill, CNN, Washington Examiner, and on. As the Politico headline puts it: “Meet Biden’s biggest fan - Her name is Kathy Hochul.” Could we be looking at a Harris-Hochul ticket?

That’s all the “anti-gun” platform amounts to: political theater.  Nothing about the new state laws contributes in any way to public safety.  Federally-licensed dealers are the public safety of constitutional and lawful sales of firearms and ammunition in the stream of commerce for those law-abiding citizens seeking to exercise their Second Amendment rights.  Stand with your local FFL.  They are standing for you.  FFLs are the modern civil rights movement.

Without federally-licensed dealers in firearms?

The new anthem I’ll be composing with the ghost of Francis Scott Key is “Let Anarchy Reign.”