A man who sought to avoid paying the $2.25 fare a a Manhattan PATH station ended up with some serious prison time after he was caught carrying an illegal weapon.
37-year-old Ruben Sanabria was stopped by Port Authority officers last March after he jumped the 14th Street station's turnstile.
While looking him over, the officers noticed Sanabria was gesturing towards his waistband area and proceeded to search him.
They soon discovered Sanabria was packing a .40-caliber Smith & Wesson loaded with so-called "cop killer bullets."
Sanabria tried to make a run for it, but was quickly apprehended and arrested.
"This defendant illegally carried a loaded semi-automatic firearm into a public transportation system used by thousands of people every day," said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance. "The officers who apprehended him did so at great personal risk. Preventing gun violence is one of my top priorities as District Attorney, and I will make sure that this Office continues to seek strong sentences for crimes involving firearms."
Sanabria pleaded guilty to criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, and was sentenced to seven years behind bars.
Addendum: You are perfectly right. But ignorance of the FACTS is often an excuse. For example, suppose carrying a firearm in your car is illegal in your jurisdiction (sorry, it must suck to be you) but your wifte, unbeknownst to you, keeps a pistol in the glove-box. You run an errand using her car.
For some innocuous reason, the cops look things over and find the gun!
Your defense is that your wife put it there without your knowledge or consent and you have her and your next-door neighbor ready to testify along those lines.
There's a fair to middling chance you'll skate on the gun charge, especially if your wife is matronly and believable. That, plus your neighbor being the parish priest.
You know, I'm no fan of NYC's mandatory 3 year prison term for anyone found with an illegal gun, because it does snare folks who are actually law abiding citizens who just happened to make a mistake. Like driving into NYC from a state with differing laws, without realizing they still had a gun in their car. Or some unlucky travelers who've had their flights diverted to NYC. They wind up having to stay the night, retrieve their luggage which has a gun that they legally checked before boarding. The go off a hotel for the night, return the next day to board their flight, produce the gun to check it in again, and are instead arrested. Off to jail for 3 years......
But, I finally heard one good aspect to the mandatory sentence. The NYC polics hava a policy, which the libs hate, of having street cops stop anyone that they find suspicous for just about any reason. If they find that person with an illegal gun, it's off to jail for 3 years for them too. So, apparently, the young hoodlums, gang bangers, etc all have learned this. Some are already in jail vial that route. Most of the others no longer routinely carry guns. That in turn means that when they see someone with the wrong colors or looking at them the wrong way, they don't have a gun in their hands to start shooting.
And that could be a key difference in why NYC has a low gun murder rate while Chicago is a killing field. Not saying I'm happy with NYC gun law, and I think there should be exemptions for the truly law abiding guy who just happens to wander in. Maybe something like if you have no criminal record, including juvenile, then you can be exempted from the mandatory sentence. I would think that the vast majority of guys the cops find with guns who are doing the street violence like you have in Chicago would already have some arrest record.
That would fix a part of the nyc problem. But it only addresses it for those with carry permits, which I think is not the major part of the problem. If you're carrying the gun in a holster, you'd have to be incredibly inept to wander somehow into NYC without thinking about the consequences and that your carry permit from state xyz is not going to be valid there.
The more typical case is folks that are not carrying the gun on their person. It's not loaded, it's in a luggage bag, or a gun bag, etc. Imagine you live in PA and went shooting at the range. You forgot the gun bag was still in your trunk. Then you drive into NYC on business, and for whatever reason, it's discovered by the cops. Off to jail for 3 years you go......
Don't you ever watch the news after these killings? According to the families of the deceased and various assorted bystandars, they're always model human beings, never done nothing to nobody and didn't deserve to die.
The "Firearms Owners? Protection Act" allows one to transport weapons, for legal purposes, wherever, without regard to local laws. The gun and any ammunition have to be transported separately and have to be locked where they cannot be readily accessed but that should cover the NYC issue.
of the deceased and various assorted bystandars, they're always model human beings, never done nothing to nobody and didn't deserve to die.
There, you would be wrong. They are animals and deserve to be shot, just as they would do to you for blinking at them. Their "families" should have thought about the consequences of their lifestyle decades before.
It doesn't There are multiple cases where people who have been re-routed to NYC airports were subsequently arrested and charged under NYC laws for illegal possession.
It's Notwithstanding any other provision of any law or any rule or regulation of a State or any political subdivision thereof, any person who is not otherwise prohibited by this chapter from transporting, shipping, or receiving a firearm shall be entitled to transport a firearm for any lawful purpose from any place where he may lawfully possess and carry such firearm to any other place where he may lawfully possess and carry such firearm if, during such transportation the firearm is unloaded, and neither the firearm nor any ammunition being transported is readily accessible or is directly accessible from the passenger compartment of such transporting vehicle: Provided, That in the case of a vehicle without a compartment separate from the driver?s compartment the firearm or ammunition shall be contained in a locked container other than the glove compartment or console. "
But the reason the above apparently does not protect you in the airport cases, is that when you retrieve your luggage to go to the hotel for your overnight stay, the weapon is readily accessible. You would be in the same jeopardy if you were traveling by car through a state with strict gun laws and you took the gun from your car to your hotel room. The NYC situation is particularly bad because of the volume of passengers at those airports and JFK in particular being a major hub.
If you lock it in a shipping container? Again, I'd like to see documentation where the law was followed and the person was arrested and convicted anyway. It wouldn't surprise me that NY would ignore the law but I'd rather not go by Usenet hearsay. ...another reason to travel by car.
New York (CNN) -- A leader of a Tea Party group was arrested Thursday at New York's LaGuardia Airport while in possession of a handgun, prosecutors said.
Mark Meckler, a co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, was detained Thursday morning during preflight check-in, according to a Queens District attorney statement.
Meckler told a Delta Airlines ticket agent about the Glock 27 pistol, which was in a locked gun box alongside more than a dozen 9mm cartridges, the statement said.
He has been charged with second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, a felony that carries up to 15 years behind bars.
"Before leaving home, passengers should acquaint themselves with the weapon laws of the jurisdiction that they are visiting and comply with any and all legal requirements if they choose to travel with a weapon," said District Attorney Richard A. Brown. "Otherwise, they may find themselves being arrested and charged with a felony, as is what occurred in this case."
Brian Stapleton, an attorney for Meckler, issued a statement saying his client abided by the law.
"Mark Meckler, an attorney and National Coordinator for Tea Party Patriots, who holds a concealed-carry permit from the state of California, today was charged with a firearms violation at LaGuardia Airport in New York City," Stapleton said in the statement.
"While in temporary transit through the state of New York in possession of an unloaded, lawful firearm that was locked in a (Transportation Security Administration)-approved safe, he legally declared his possession of the firearm in his checked baggage at the ticket counter as required by law and in a manner approved by TSA and the airline, yet was arrested by port authority for said possession."
And the disposition:
"A prominent tea party activist who pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct Thursday after being arrested at LaGuardia Airport last month for trying to board a flight with a gun is speaking out against New York City authorities for refusing to return his firearm, calling it ?government robbery.?
Mark Meckler, co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, was arrested in December after he attempted to check in for a Delta Airlines flight with a locked box containing a Glock pistol and ammunition. According to the New York Post, after Meckler pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, he was sentenced to a conditional discharge and fined $250.
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So you could argue that he wasn't technically convicted of the gun charge because it was plea bargained down. But he does wind up with an arrest and conviction record and no gun. I would suspect that a lot of these cases get plea bargained down, but you still have the joy of being arrested, booked, held, and paying thousands in lawyer fees to keep your freedom.
Also, as far as being reasonable, are you aware that NY state considers a loaded gun to be one where the ammo is just in close proximity to the gun? So, if they stop you and you have the gun in a bag in the trunk and there is ammo in the bag, it's considered a loaded weapon? How's that for reasonable?
The ammunition should be separated from the weapon.
Better than Usenet hearsay but I did say:
"It wouldn't surprise me that NY would ignore the law..."
I'm surprised the NRA didn't get involved.
Which is why, when I travel through NY, I don't take ammunition with me. It can (in normal times) be bought at any Walmart.
Thanks for the reference, though. It does prove that the official NY is as lawless as I always knew it was. I'll certainly refrain from visiting there as much as possible.
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