Hey ever'body. I'm dedicating this post to telling the story that got deleted. The one about my encounter in PRNY. The one I promised to tell you tonight at Crossroads but didn't
. Since I'm a lazy foo', I'm going to copy and paste the email I sent to somebody regarding the incident.
So. Context. It was the night of Friday, September 11th, 2009. I had a college class, but I was due to attend one of my World War 2 events in Odessa, NY. Some of my comrades had been there since Thursday, and were expecting me. Class was dismissed at about 21:40, and I began my journey. The following is a clip of what I sent to the coordinator of the WWII event I was going to:
"On my way to the event, I had a little run in with local police, and it didn't end very well.
I had college class Friday night, and I'm supposed to be at the event ASAP. Class ended at about 21:40, and I hit the road. On my way, I pass though a village in NY called Owego. It's about 1AM Saturday morning, and I'm doing really well, when an Owego cop pulls me over for doing 50mph in a 40 zone. It was kind of a cheap shot, but I was the only one on the road in a boring town on a boring night.
The cop asks me where I'm headed, and I explained I was on my way to Odessa for a WWII event. I was in uniform, by the way. Naturally, he then asks if I have any weapons. Not wanting to lie, I said yes. He then asked me if I had a NY State license to carry. I told him that I didn't, and he asked me to show him the weapons.
So I got out of the car, and we went to the now open trunk. I reached inside, and grabbed the pistol case, and got my key out. I unlocked the case, turned it towards the officer, and opened it. He removed the Walther P22 from the case, inspected it, and handed it to his partner to hold onto. I then proceeded to display my K98 rifle in mostly the same fashion, but this time the officer had me put it back in the rifle sheath and throw it back in the trunk. They kept the P22, and they went back to the police car, and I waited in my car.
After 3 or 4 minutes, they both came back, and explained that they don't care about the rifle, but they couldn't give me my pistol back. They explained that I needed to come down to the station with them. I was cuffed (without Miranda), and seated in the back of the police car, and I got to watch through the windshield the rest of my car being searched. When we were ready to go, we went to the Owego police station, and they escorted me inside. They uncuffed me and sat me down on a chair. We went through routine bio questions, 1 or 2 questions about the P22, and fingerprints and mugshot. When all was said and done, they brought out the take-home paperwork, and went over it with me. They explained I was being charged with a speeding ticket, and a misdemeanor charge of criminal possession of a firearm in the 4th degree, class A. My arraignment date was set for Tuesday October 13th, 9:00AM.
I was finally released at about 4AM Saturday. When the officers returned me to my car, one joked, "hey, you can tell your unit buddies you were a POW for a while, ha ha ha.....". I got lost all the way up in Ithica, and finally arrived at camp a little after 6AM, and got 1 or 2 hours of sleep before the Saturday battle."
That's most of the story. Of course when I woke up after my 1-hour sleep, my unit buddies, all joked, "Hey jail bird benny, take a shower with Bubba last night, eh?". I brushed it off, but I just couldn't get that huge weight of the arrest off my shoulders for weeks. During the fight that Saturday, I was hampered by hunger, which was surpassed by sleepiness, and those feelings were dwarfed by the massive worry of what I was going to do any more. To help explain my anxiety, I am in school to become a Middle School Social Studies teacher. Naturally, if I have a criminal weapons charge on my record (non expungable), I can basically forget about my career (and all college, too). Anyway, my unit was
deployed 2 to 4 men at a time, via BMW motorcycle. I fought a half-hearted fight Saturday, and went home Sunday full of worry.
Before I was arraigned, I sought out legal help, (even though I never hired a lawyer) and did a little research myself. This is the crime that I was charged with according to NY law:
§ 265.01 Criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree.
A person is guilty of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth
degree when:
(1) He or she possesses any firearm, electronic dart gun, electronic
stun gun, gravity knife, switchblade knife, pilum ballistic knife, metal
knuckle knife, cane sword, billy, blackjack, bludgeon, plastic knuckles,
metal knuckles, chuka stick, sand bag, sandclub, wrist-brace type
slingshot or slungshot, shirken or "Kung Fu star".
Then, this is an exception I found in the law pertaining to the charge:
13-a. Except in cities not wholly contained within a single county of the state, possession of pistols and revolvers by a person who is a nonresident of this state while attending or traveling to or from, an organized convention or exhibition for the display of or education about firearms, which is conducted under auspices of, or approved by, the National Rifle Association and in which he is a registered participant, within forty-eight hours of such event, provided that he has not been previously convicted of a felony or a crime which, if committed in New York, would constitute a felony, and further provided that the pistols or revolvers are transported unloaded in a locked opaque container together with a copy of the convention or exhibition program, convention or exhibition schedule or convention or exhibition registration card. Such documentation shall constitute prima facie evidence of exemption, providing that such person also has in his possession a pistol license or firearms registration card issued in accordance with the laws of his place of residence. For purposes of this paragraph, a person licensed in a jurisdiction which does not authorize such license by a person who has been previously convicted of a felony shall be presumed to have no prior conviction. The superintendent of state police shall annually review the laws of jurisdictions within the United States and Canada with respect to the applicable requirements for licensing or registration of firearms and shall publish a list of those jurisdictions which prohibit possession of a firearm by a person previously convicted of a felony or crimes which if committed in New York state would constitute a felony.
I read this and realized it described me in perfect detail. After speaking a few times with the public defender for that particular county in NY (Tioga county), he advised that I go ahead and plead not guilty to the charge and present the exception with the evidence. When it came time for the arraignment, I did just that. I plead not guilty, and held a conference with the District Attorney to explain myself. She appeared neutral in the discussions, but it was rather clear she was not expecting what I had there. She explained that she could not make a decision at that time, because she would have to see the other evidence from the police department (the stuff that was confiscated upon my arrest). So, I was adjourned for 2 weeks pending the determination of the eligibility of being covered under that exception I found. I was to return for a pre-trial.
Before the pre-trial, I got a letter in the mail from the DA's office, explaining a deal they had for me. They were prepared to offer me an 'ACD' (adjournment in contemplation of dismissal). Basically, they want me to be a good boy for a certain period of time, then they'll let me go. The letter stated that I could not simply be found 'not guilty' because (get this) my event registration card was in my jacket pocket at the time of my arrest. That's right. If you read the exception closely enough, it says the card should be in the case with the pistol. So they want to say I'm a criminal cause I kept the card on me, instead of in the case.
But they offered the ACD anyway. I found this very strange, but pleasing, knowing I was in the clear. I speculate they did this because prosecuting the case would be pointless and quite BS, but on the other end, I think they didn't simply drop the charges because it might've made the arresting officer look bad. All the same, I appeared in court again, and signed the ACD. The DA said I could arrange to get my junk back in April (need a FFL guy, I guess). So that day was about 8 hours of driving to spend 5 mins in the courthouse signing a piece of paper.
So there you have it folks. All is well, but I learned my lesson. And I felt pretty bad about waiting until April to be able to OC again, so I recently got myself the S&W Sigma 9mm (which some of you saw this evening at Crossroads). Hope this post was long enough.
I'll answer any questions anybody has.
Moral of the story: I had to go through all of this stupid stuff because some liberal wuss believes with a straight face that laws like this can actually do anything to combat crime (When all it does is tie up me, the LEOs, and the courts).
Other moral of the story:
STAY OUTTA NEW YORK
