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Right or wrong you now have a felony arrest record. See below.
Airport Gun Cases
New York City is home to not one but two major international airports (both in Queens County). New York City is also home to some of the strictest and harshest gun control legislation in the nation. Add to this the fact that the major airlines do very little to make prospective carriers of handguns aware that the Federal regulations with respect to transportation of handguns on airplanes do not govern New York and you have a recipe for serious problems.
Here is how it works: Passenger lives in a state where gun control laws are not as strict as New York, like say, Texas. In Texas, it is probably illegal not to carry a weapon. Passenger wants to travel by airplane with his gun as he has done a million times before to other southern states. He does everything by the book alerting the airline in advance and checking for the appropriate procedures.
This time, however, he is traveling to New York City. So this time he actually contacts the airline and asks for instructions. They give him instructions. He follows the instructions. He has all the paperwork, all the licenses, all the everything he needs to be in legal possession of that gun in Texas and probably 23 other states, except unfortunately, New York. The airline information people provide him with the Federal rules about which they are primarily concerned but do not provide him the information about New York State specific rules.
Is Passenger careless for not paying closer attention to the rules? Should he have been more careful about making sure that everything would be ok in New York? Absolutely. Unfortunately for Passenger, however, aside from being so careless, he is, the moment the plane lands in New York City, probably guilty of a violent felony offense in New York City (and he has NO LEGAL DEFENSE).
This scenario, or a version of it, plays itself out fairly frequently in New York City. At Shalley & Murray alone, we have handled quite a few of these sorts of cases and we are but one small new york city criminal law firm. Many people, including celebrities have been caught up in versions of this scenario.
One might expect that the frequency with which this scenario occurs and the sort of clear absurdity of it would suggest that the District Attorney's Office would routinely treat these cases as they seem to deserve to be treated. The reality, however, is that the District Attorney's Office takes these cases extremely seriously. They can often be quite difficult to "negotiate away".
One of the difficulties in cases within this general scenario is that the District Attorney's Office has (legally) a very strong case. There is virtually no legal defense to these cases despite how ridiculous it might seem that someone with a license in 23 states who follows all the directions that the FAA and the airlines told him could be guilty of a violent felony offense.
Therefore, the District Attorney's Office has a great deal of bargaining power when determining how or whether to negotiate. If they choose, they can adopt a hostile "take it or be indicted for a violent felony for which there is a mandatory state prison sentence) approach. This is not to say that they will adopt such a hostile approach. But in negotiating these cases, one must keep in mind that the District Attorney's Office has this over the head of the defendant.
The one bit of room the Passenger in this scenario has is that he may be able to take advantage of the Grand Jury process in a way that most defendants can not. Defendants facing felony gun possession charges in this circumstance are often good candidates for testifying in the Grand Jury if the case gets that far. The Grand Jury is of course normally not a terribly defendant friendly procedure for a variety of reasons. Furthermore, as I mentioned before, the Passenger in this scenario really hasn't much of a LEGAL defense. So why on earth would Passenger want to testify before the Grand Jury and virtually confess to the crime?
…because members of the Grand Jury are human beings who are likely to have little use for indicting Passenger for a felony under these sorts of circumstances. It is not uncommon for Grand Jurors in cases such as this to refuse to indict.
Keep in mind that a decision to testify in the Grand Jury in this sort of situation is a HUGE decision and one that ABSOLUTELY MUST BE MADE ON A CASE BY CASE BASIS WITH AN EXPERIENCED CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY. The defendant must understand the risks involved and must understand that his testimony before the Grand Jury under oath is arguably admitting to all of the necessary elements of the crime.
NOT EVERY GUN CASE, EVEN IF IT IS AN AIRPORT GUN CASE, IS A GOOD CANDIDATE FOR GRAND JURY PRESENTATION. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD ANYTHING IN THIS ARTICLE BE TAKEN TO MEAN THAT SHALLEY & MURRAY RECOMMENDS THAT ALL DEFENDANTS IN AIRPORT GUN CASES TESTIFY IN THE GRAND JURY. IN DISCUSSING THE POSSIBILITY OF A GRAND JURY PRESENTATION UNDER THESE CIRCUMSTANCES, I MEAN ONLY TO DESCRIBE THE ONE SMALL AREA OF BARGAINING POWER A DEFENDANT IN SUCH A CIRCUMSTANCE HAS.
The District Attorney's Office is aware of this risk, but is certainly more than willing to take it if the assistant handling the case believes there is sufficient justification to prosecute the case as a felony.
In such cases, the hope is that through concerted negotiation a mutually agreeable resolution of the matter would be possible.
In any event, a person who has been arrested in one of these airport gun cases needs an experienced criminal defense lawyer.
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