NYPD to Assume Residents Carrying Firearms Are Doing So Unlawfully Until Proven Otherwise

The state of New York has made it very clear that they don't value your right to keep and bear arms. While gun ownership and even carrying a firearm is a fundamental right, one protected by our Constitution, New York isn't exactly a fan.

Yet it seems they're also not a fan of treating their citizens like law-abiding citizens, either. That's based on a tweet from Gun Owners of America.

The circled one? It reads, “Anyone caught carrying a firearm is presumed to be carrying unlawfully until proven otherwise.”

You know, “innocent until proven guilty” is also pretty fundamental to how this country works.

Now, understand, I can get why you'd want to tell officers to be cautious inquiring as to whether someone who is carrying a gun has a permit or not. Police in New York aren't really used to this and advising them to be careful is certainly warranted.

But that's not what police are being told to do. They're being told to treat anyone with a firearm as a criminal until they can prove they're not.

That might not sound awful to some of you, but let's envision what that's going to be like for a moment. This probably won't be a friendly officer coming up and asking to see one's permit. That makes the assumption that there is a permit, after all, and officers there are being told to not make that assumption.

No, we're looking at law-abiding citizens who went through New York's and the NYPD's rigorous process to get a concealed carry permit and are striving to comply with the insane regulations suddenly finding themselves staring down the barrel of a police-issue firearm, possibly several of them, for the “crime” of exercising their Second Amendment rights.

Bad as that is, now think about the instances where law-abiding citizens have been killed by police while trying to comply with instructions–it's happened more than once in recent years–and you have a recipe for disaster.

What's sad is that many of the people who think this is a good idea are the same people who a couple of years ago were saying that the police were too quick to shoot and should be defunded. Funny how that shakes out, ain't it?

Now, GOA says this came down from New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, but it looks like this came down from the New York Police Commissioner instead. I'm no Hochul fan, as some of you likely already know, but I'm not entirely sure you can put this one on her.

However, I'm also not going to hold my breath on her calling New York City down over this kind of thing, either. She may not have issued it, but I'd bet money I don't have that she approves of it.

At least, she does right up until the very moment that we see the NYPD blow away some law-abiding citizen who also happens to be part of some protected class, then there will be hell to pay.

Yet anyone with a brain can see that this is exactly where this will eventually lead.

Read the original article in its entirety at bearingarms.com.