Contingency Planning

With only four business days remaining until Wednesday, September 13, 2023, it’s time to start contingency planning. This is a blog. It is not legal advice. Please consult with an attorney, particularly at this critical juncture, so that you can discuss your personal circumstances and receive specific guidance.

It’s after 5:00 p.m. on EST September 6, 2023. Still nothing. Nothing from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Nothing from the State of New York. Nothing since we filed our second Emergency Motion in Gazzola v. Hochul on Tuesday, August 29, 2023, which included a request for expedited processing.

Let’s start talking a couple scenarios.

Scenario A. We get a stay against the NYSP and Governor Hochul ahead of midnight on Tuesday, September 12. (Leave that be for now. Too much drill down on what’s going on in this office to try to get to that.)

Scenario B. We do not get a stay and it clicks to 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday, September 13, 2023. Collaged from various sources, here’s what appears likely, as of this minute.

1 - FBI-NICS disconnects FFLs of (at the least) Type-01 and Type-02 from the FBI/ATF system and halts all communication with said FFLs.

2 - NYSP system fails. (a.) Best information as of this afternoon is that NYSP is still writing code. (b.) Multiple reports today that dealers and county/local law enforcement remain unable to set up a dealer account on the non-operational website address published in the Hochul-Nigrelli letter and further e-mailed by FBI-NICS Mr. Eric Moore, Business Liaison.

3 - BE ON STRIKE on Wednesday, September 13, 2023. Here’s a sign. Hang it in your door, coming and going asap. Call your local newspapers and tv and go live on your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, whatever and tell your customers and fan base what’s happening here in New York. Be seen. Keep no secrets, no even for “Angie” or “Agent 3 - 2 - 0.” Call your local ATF field agents. Call the Republican Congressional delegation and alert them that we have a national security issue.

4 - Be prepared to talk to your customers. You may want to make a flyer to hand out to them - perhaps a short letter - to express your inability to access a background check system. Include the name of your Congressman, your NYS Senator, and your NYS Assemblyman, along with their telephone numbers. Something that they can take in their hands and walk out of the store and take responsible, political action. The energy is going to have to go somewhere, and it will be better to have a focused activity. People are starting to step up (isn’t it always at the last minute - ??!). Allow them to help you raise your voice.

5 - Keep the information flow as accurate and documented, as possible. Thank you for all that you have shared so far, and I invite you to continue to use my Contact Page form.

All of the plaintiffs in Gazzola v. Hochul and I are experiencing and feeling the same sense of frustration and nerves. It didn’t have to come to this. We filed the original Emergency Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order/Preliminary Injunction on November 8, 2022. We’ve twice submitted to SCOTUS. We fully briefed the Second Circuit as of extensive oral arguments in Manhattan on March 20, 2023. And we filed a second Emergency Motion to them on August 29, 2023. I literally wrote the words “broken arrow” to the U.S. Supreme Court and explained in legal detail how we’re at checkmate without a court ruling. Now here we are, less than a week before the Hochul-Nigrelli power grab and the start of the first gun owner’s registry, so let’s try to use our time wisely.

I’ll try my hand this evening at an information flyer to share with customers. Look for me to upload that PDF asap.