Submitted our application yesterday, Westchester NY
My wife and I submitted our applications yesterday. The two detectives who took each of our permits were both very pleasant and very helpful. Despite all the gotchas I've noted from forum posts, there were still a few things that we missed. Luckily, one of the detectives was a notary and notarized a couple of additional items for us. Two things to note for anyone applying in Westchester, at least, and maybe NYS wide. For question 11, which asks if you've taken any firearm instruction I answered "Yes" since I did and its required. The instructions say "If you answer 'yes' to any question you need to include a letter explaining'. Most of the other questions refer to criminal record or mental problems, so I assumed the instructions were referring to those and that for #11 my including the certificate from the NRA Basic Safety Course was sufficient. But I was told that they did, indeed, need a letter along the lines of:
To Whom it May Concern,
In regards to question 11, I have completed the NRA Basic Safety Course and have included a copy of the certificate with the permit application materials.
Signed, dated and notarized.
(Now the detective did notarize it for us, but that may have been just extra caution on his part, because I don't recall in the instructions that any of the letters of explanation had to be notarized, but since you're having to get everything else notarized you may as well get your letter notarized as well).
The second minor glitch was that the gun we were required to purchase and include on the permit only had my name on the bill of sale. My wife and I both included the same gun on our permit apps. So I had to write another letter for my wife's permit app saying:
To Whom It May Concern,
My wife, xxxxx, and I, xxxxx share full possession of the Ruger xxxxx, serial # xxxxx.
Signed, dated and notarized.
On amendments for future gun purchases either a similar letter needs to be included or more simply I can have the bill of sale in both our names when I purchase the gun. Had I the foresight to put my wife's name on the order when I bought the gun, the letter wouldn't have been needed.
They also asked if we wanted the hunting addendum letter, similar to the target shooting addendum letter which they included with the original materials. We don't really intend to hunt, you can't in Westchester anyway, and we're more interested in target/sport shooting and HD. But to be complete, we said sure, and filled it out and the detective notarized us for it. If you are interested though, you should ask for this form when you get your application. One, just so you have it when you go and two, because I don't think you can depend on one of the detectives being a notary, we just lucked out.
Other than that the entire thing took 1/2 hr for the both of us, and as I said the detectives were very helpful. My wife forgot to sign one of the triplicate forms, which the det. didn't catch until after we had left. So he called my wife on her cell# to tell her. We hadn't gotten in our car yet, but we had left the building and since it was after 5:00pm the building was closed. So the det. came down to meet us so she could sign the form.
So you know what to expect (and again this is for Westchester, other counties certainly differ), here is a brief description of what happens.
You arrive and tell them you're there for your permit appointment.
They take your money order first. Then they take the rest of your application materials.
They staple a copy of the checklist (which is included with the instructions you got with the application) to a folder.
They then go through each of the items on the checklist and check to see that you have it.
They make copies of your passport (or whatever items you brought to prove citizenship) and proof of residency and give the originals back.
After a brief scan to make sure all forms are filled out, signed and notarized as required, they take your photo and fingerprints.
And that's it. They told us to expect something from them in 4-6 months.
I hope this helps anyone else trying to get a permit in Westchester.
