NYSP Muddle

For state-licensed dealers in firearms, trying to figure out the 2022 new laws under NY General Business Law section 875 has been difficult – to say the least.  The core problem has been the NYS Police.  The NYSP is a law enforcement division, operating under the Governor.  It is not an agency like the ATF.  The NYSP was not designed to work with licensed dealers, as is the ATF.  It does not have the skills, the training, or the personnel to operate like the ATF.

Yet here we are, victims of a forced marriage.

Recently, the NYSP adjusted its public position on its role vis-à-vis dealers in firearms.  I’m also preparing for the updates seminar I’m teaching next Monday, November 3, 2025 – sign-up found HERE – so let’s recap our collective knowledge and understanding.

1.  The current official NYSP position is that they don’t have any administrative authority over dealers in firearms and their responsibility is to help dealers come into compliance.  This recent quote from the NYS Police Director of Public Education to the media is so important that I’m uploading a PDF of the article HERE.  There are no known instances of the NYS Police helping any state-licensed dealer to comply with existing laws.  Indeed, the individual officers who went on site and the individual officers answering the telephone calls adhere strictly to the script of “I don’t know.”

 2.  The prior, official NYSP position to the NYS Legislature in 2023 and 2024 was that a quantifiable number of dealers in firearms were not in compliance with the new laws.  These 1-page aggregate number reports from 2023 (HERE) and 2024 (HERE) give no break-out of who or how.  No individual dealer is known to have received results directly from the NYSP following an on-site visit. There were a few individual officers who permitted dealers to make photocopies of the blank form or who brought an extra blank copy for them. There are two known dealers who were permitted to make copies of the officer-completed form showing full compliance. See sample “checklists” used by the NYSP HERE.

3.  The original story was that the NYS Department of Criminal Justice Services (“DCJS”) demanded the “inspections” start by a drop-dead date, summer of 2023.  However, the way the admissible evidence has come in, the bigger story is that the NYSP on-site visits were likely requested by the NY Attorney General, under the guise of being a “survey,” that officers did not know were being transmitted to the NY AG.  More than one officer said as much to several, different FFL-NY dealers across a period of approximately two years.  The NY AG is attempting to use one, known “checklist” in one case (Bowman I) and they flashed about (without providing either to the judge or to myself, as counsel of record) two other “checklists” in a different case (Blue Line Sports).  No “checklist” as yet has been formally offered into evidence, nor has any officer of the NYS Police sworn an affidavit concerning the same.  See sample “checklists” used by the NYSP HERE.

 3.A. In the one case where the “checklist” surfaced as a State document attachment in James v. Bowman (“Bowman II”), the owner, Mr. Tim Bowman, was not on site at the time of the visit, had notified the officer who called to make the appointment that he could not be on site that particular day but would gladly make another date for an appointment, was informed the officer was going to stop by to “drop-off educational materials,” and three officers then appeared on site where they spoke to a non-licensee/non-owner while standing stationary across the counter from him, then outside the front door with him.  The “checklist” was not even accurate for that date in time, had the NYSP simply met with the owner/licensee.  See, James v. Bowman in the Northern District federal court at 8:25-cv-1131 (“Bowman II”) and the related case, also in N.D.N.Y., under Bowman v. James at 8:25-cv-1387 (“Bowman III”).

4.  The NYS Police chose not to issue regulations, under the 2022 NY General Business Law section 875.  The deadline to do so was December 5, 2022.  It appears, as revealed through recent litigation in the Gazzola v. Hochul case, that one attempt may have been made by an unidentified person at the NYSP to publish words that, basically, mimicked the statute without adding any regulatory value, and that attempt was not performed correctly under the state administrative procedures act.  See, Gazzola v. Hochul, in the N.D.N.Y. at 1:22-cv-1134, docs. 122-11, 130-2, 133.  It is unequivocal that there were no “regulations” published or promulgated on time or in advance of any on-site visits by NYSP officers to FFL-NY dealers. 

 4.A. In a recent district court decision in Gazzola v. Hochul, the judge declined to rule on Plaintiffs’ request for a permanent injunction against the NYSP taking any enforcement action against dealers in firearms due to the lack of regulations.  That request by Plaintiffs included that the NYSP Superintendent was required to publish the regulations in order to grant officers the authorization to conduct an “inspection.”  The Gazzola district court ruling is being appealed and is now headed up to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.  The NYSP did not dispute the Plaintiffs’ factual claims.  Indeed, the NYSP response at doc. 130-2 gave us additional information that supported the requested relief. 

What is our take-away?  If any dealer in firearms becomes the target of the NY Attorney General, knowing where to look for data points to build a defense is critical.  There’s this great line from “Moneyball,” starring Brad Pitt, where the owner of the Boston Red Sox tells Brad’s character: the first one to the wall always gets bloodied.  That’s where we’ve all been since June 2022, as more than 300 dealers in firearms terminated their federal licenses and eleven dealers went to court.  Now, we know where we are and what needs doing.  It’s time to share that information and build collective defenses.

Wrap-Up.  Please join FFLs for an in-person seminar this coming Monday, November 3, 2025, details and sign-up HERE.  I’ll be going over this plus additional information we need to discuss, as an industry.  The most important asset we have at present is our network and our willingness to share information amongst each other.  Please be welcomed to join the conversation.