Mike H, New York City is much worse than the rest of the state. I'm in Westchester County, just north of the city. Here there still is an enormous amount of paper work needed to get a permit.
You need to have four people sign a character reference form for you. These forms must be signed before a notery. Try getting four people to take a form to a notery in a timely fasion. There is a four hour NRA saftey course that must be completed and a handful of forms that you yourself must fill out and sign before a notery, five sets of fingerprints are taken. Then you wait about six months. Finally, your permit is ready. On the back of the permit are the guns, with serial numbers, that you are permited to posses and carry. You may not carry them just anywhere, you must stipulate, at the time you file for the permit, what you intend to use them for. If you have a hunting license, you may request a hunting permit, which would entitle you to carry a gun, concealed and loaded, from your home, to the spot in which you intend to hunt. Or, with your employer's endorsement, you could get a business permit, which would allow you to carry whenever you were going to or from work, or enguaging in work related activities. Or, you could have what I have, a target permit, which allows me to carry to and from the range. Not to take with me up to the ski cabin, or off to the lake. Only from my primary residence to a range.
This permit is good in all of New York State, except in New York City. I live three miles from the Bronx, which is part of NYC. If I mistakenly took a gun across the border, I would be comitting a felony, with a firearm.
[This message has been edited by Postman (edited October 29, 1999).]
