In the state of New York, the penalties for the illegal possession of a firearm can be quite severe. You may be charged with illegally carrying a gun that is registered, and if it is loaded at the time, you could face having a felony conviction appear on your record. Even if the gun did not have any bullets inside of it at the time, if bullets were within your reach, the law still considers the gun to be a loaded one.
Charges can also happen if you are illegally carrying a firearm. These types of cases may be especially difficult to defend against, as the evidence is generally fairly straightforward. It will be highly important for you to determine your best defensive strategies if you have been charged with the offense.
In some cases, the police employ illegal search and seizure methods, and if that happened in your case, you may be able to assert a constitutional challenge. If your motion is granted through such a challenge, the evidence may be suppressed and your case dismissed. Otherwise, you may either need to secure a favorable plea to a lesser offense or be prepared to fight your case through trial.
The attorneys at our firm begin fighting aggressively from the start with every client who has been charged with illegally possessing a firearm. We understand how difficult these cases can be, and thus we utilize every resource available to us in order to best help our clients. If there was a problem with how the police found and seized a gun, we fight to suppress all of the evidence in order to secure a dismissal. In other cases, we may try to seek a favorable plea or fight through jury trial and verdict. If you have questions, you may find our page on weapons charges to be helpful.