Thanks Mike, for the information, but are you saying open carry, such as while hunting is no longer allowed???
I know open carry like downtown Albany in june freaks people out, and while technically legal was "discouraged" strongly, but back in the 70s, it was no big deal for us to stop into a diner in any Adirondack town during deer season with a pistol on your belt. The only reaction it ever produced was "Did you have any luck??" and "what can I get you folks today?"
Most people, in most of the country, who never lived in NY (or the other states with similar laws) simply have no concept of how obsessive the govt there is about gun control, particularly handguns.
I moved out of NY in Jan 79, and sometimes around 2001-02 (don't recall exactly, now) Saratoga country (apparently finally tracked me down) sent me a letter, in which they informed me that, since I was no longer a NY resident, my pistol permit was no longer valid. Mind you, I hadn't been a NY resident for over 20 years, so the permit being invalid wasn't unexpected.
But what tripped me out was their request that they wanted the permit BACK!. That's right, the little wallet sized, non laminated piece of paper they issued in 75 (and that I hadn't even seen for decades) the wanted it back!
AND, they also wanted to know where the guns listed on the permit were!
The guns listed on my permit were my Dad's pistols, which I had not seen since a brief visit home in the 80s. My response to their demand wouldn't pass TFL language filters, so I won't repeat it here, suffice to say "go pound sand" should give you an idea....
As a result of my parents being involved in a bad car wreck in the late 60s, we learned that had Dad died, if no one else in the household had a permit listing his pistols on it, the guns would have to be surrendered to the state.
IF they were turned in to the Sheriff dept, AND a permit was applied for, then they would be held until the permit application was either approved or denied. If they were turned in to the State Police, they would be held for a period of time (I think 30 days, no longer remember for sure) and then DESTROYED. If I remember right, even taking them to an FFL to be sold was not a legal option. If no one in the family had a permit (and remember, the guns were listed on the permit by serial number) they would be gone, and the family would not see one penny of their value.
back then, if the estate executor did intend to sell them, the local authorities (in the more rural areas, anyway) would often allow it, but that was their option, the law did not require it. Today, I would expect everything to be seized and I expect the estate would have to go to court to get any bit of their value returned.
SO, Mom immediately applied for her permit, and my brother and I both applied for ours when we turned 18, with ALL of Dad's pistols listed on all our permits.
Dad passed in '03 and I went back to NY to bury him. Things sure had changed. When I left there were 3 gun shops within bicycle range of our home. In 2003, I had to travel 80 miles to find one. Dad's pistols were still legal, because my brother still lived there, and they were listed on his permit. HE had to take them to the gunshop (I could not legally posses them in NY state) so we could ship them to an FFL in my home state, and I have them now.
If you own handguns in NY, I strongly urge you to put a plan in place so that if something happens to you, the state does not get them, and your heirs do, or get the value they represent.
IF you live somewhere else, I urge you to look at what NY does, as a lesson, at the very least.