In the dead-of-night Queens, a 65-year-old retired doorman proved that the Second Amendment can still save your life—even in the most anti-gun city in America. Then New York proved it can still ruin it.
On the evening of June 29, 2022, Charles Foehner was walking near his Kew Gardens home when 31-year-old Cody Gonzalez rushed him, demanding money and lunging with what Foehner believed was a knife glinting in his hand. The elderly man drew a revolver he’d carried for decades and fired once, killing Gonzalez on the spot. The “knife” turned out to be a pen—but in the dark, at close range, with a violent career criminal charging, no reasonable person would have waited to find out.
Queens DA Melinda Katz quickly announced she would not charge Foehner for the shooting itself, acknowledging clear self-defense. Good so far, right?
Wrong.
Because Foehner’s revolver—and the several other firearms he kept at home—were not blessed with New York City’s nearly impossible-to-obtain carry permit, prosecutors hit him with a barrage of felony weapons charges. Facing decades behind bars at age 65, he took a plea deal Thursday: four years in state prison for criminal possession of a weapon.
Let that sink in: the mugger is dead because he tried to rob and possibly kill an innocent man. The innocent man is going to prison for four years because he successfully stopped the mugger.
Foehner’s attorney, Mark Bederow, didn’t mince words:
“This is a 65-year-old man with zero criminal record who defended his life against a violent predator. New York’s draconian, unconstitutional licensing scheme turned a victim into a felon.”
This is exactly how anti-2A politicians want it to work: make legal gun ownership so burdensome that almost nobody can comply, then jail the law-abiding citizens who dare protect themselves anyway. They couldn’t convict Charles Foehner of murder or manslaughter because the facts were undeniable self-defense—so they convicted him of the “crime” of exercising a God-given right the state refuses to recognize.
Amy Swearer’s words ring truer than ever: “The right to keep and bear arms is based on the natural, immutable right to defend oneself… from crime and tyranny.” In most of America, Charles Foehner would be called a hero. In New York, he’s Prisoner #25B1834.
Four years of an elderly man’s remaining life—stolen not by the mugger, but by the state that disarmed him on paper long before the mugger ever showed up.
This is why the Second Amendment exists.
This is why Bruen matters.
And this is why New York’s contempt for it must end.
Charles Foehner saved his own life that night.
Now the rest of us need to fight like hell to save what’s left of it.
