If you want to know just how much trouble restrictive anti-gun laws can cause for lawful citizens, look no further than a 67-year-old New Yorker recently jailed.
Charles Foehner wasn’t prosecuted for fatally shooting a repeat criminal in self-defense two years ago. Rather, he was charged for saving his own life with an unlicensed handgun—apparently the equivalent of a cardinal sin in New York City.
Jailed for Defense in New York
The Self-Defense Incident
Published reports indicate that Foehner had several unregistered firearms in his residence when Cody Gonzalez attacked him. Foehner reportedly used one of those guns to fatally shoot Gonzalez, who allegedly demanded money and cigarettes from Foehner outside his apartment building before Gonzalez lunged at Foehner with what appeared to be a knife, but turned out to be a pen.
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According to a report at Qchron.com, Foehner was not charged in Gonzalez’s death, as it was an obvious case of self-defense. However, the office of Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz hit him with more than a dozen weapons charges. Katz said at the time that those were the charges “factually supported by the evidence.”
Facing a possible 25 years in prison if convicted in his upcoming criminal trial, on November 20, Foehner instead pleaded guilty to criminal possession of a weapon. In his January 14 sentencing, he is expected to receive a four-year sentence.
Foehner’s attorney, Thomas Kenniff, criticized the prosecution and the gun laws that made it possible.
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“If this was a state and a city that had its affairs in order, Mr. Foehner would be getting a plaque, not a prison sentence,” Kenniff said in a video posted to YouTube.
CCRKBA Weighs In
In a news release announcing the successful prosecution, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) said a grave injustice was done in Foehner’s case.
“We agree wholeheartedly with attorney Thomas Kenniff’s assessment of New York’s gun laws,” CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb said in the news release.
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“Almost everywhere else in the country, Mr. Foehner would be getting accolades for defending himself against a guy with Gonzalez’ criminal record, but in New York, he’s getting four years in prison. Queens prosecutors should be ashamed of themselves for using New York’s despicable gun laws to imprison a man who was defending himself from a thug who had at least 15 arrests in his background, along with a record of mental illness.”
Gottlieb added that what Foehner really deserves is to have his sentence commuted, which is highly unlikely.
“If there is true justice in the world, Mr. Foehner’s sentence would be commuted, at the very least, when he appears in court on Jan. 14,” Gottlieb concluded. “But this is New York City, where the good guys are treated like bad guys, and the real bad guys—who truly belong behind bars—are continually recycled back to the streets.”
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If there’s a lesson to be learned from this, it’s that some anti-gun bureaucrats would rather see average citizens jailed instead of many-time repeat criminals. In the Big Apple, if you haven’t jumped through all of the required unconstitutional hoops, armed self-defense might save your life and wreck it at the same time.
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