NOTE TO READERS: The embedded video below is original news coverage from May 2023, the week the incident occurred. The Charles Foehner sentencing took place more than two years later, in November 2025.
If you want to understand just how upside-down New York has become, look no further than the Charles Foehner sentencing. This is the story of a 67-year-old retiree who stepped outside for a smoke, noticed footsteps coming toward him in the dark, and wound up in a life-or-death encounter with a man who had more prior arrests than a CVS has receipts. A man lunges at him, demands money twice, closes distance, and behaves like exactly the sort of unpredictable criminal New Yorkers pray they never meet at 2 A.M. Foehner does what millions of Americans would do if their back was literally against the wall: he defended himself. And guess what? The police, the investigators, and even the Queens District Attorney all agreed — it was self-defense. A righteous shoot. Case closed on the homicide side. But in New York, saving your own life is the easy part. Surviving the legal system? That’s where the nightmare begins.
You see, the shooting wasn’t the problem. The Charles Foehner sentencing isn’t about a murder, a manslaughter, or even improper use of force. It’s about paperwork. Licensing. Registrations. And the kind of bureaucratic nonsense that only politicians who’ve never been outside after 6 p.m. think is more important than a man’s right to walk to his car without getting stabbed. Once NYPD investigated the shooting, they realized that the revolver he used — a .38 Smith & Wesson — wasn’t properly licensed under New York’s labyrinth of gun laws. And once they got a warrant and searched his apartment, they discovered what the authorities would later gasp over like they’d uncovered a terrorist bunker: thirty guns, some long guns, some pistols, a couple of rifles, an AK-style weapon or two, magazines that hold more than four rounds (gasp!), and even some body armor.
Now, in any state that still believes in the Constitution, this would just be called a “gun collection.” A hobby. A Tuesday. In New York, it’s a felony buffet. Prosecutors didn’t care that Foehner had permits for some of the guns. They cared that he didn’t have the right permits for all of them. He wasn’t charged for killing his attacker — he was charged for daring to own tools of self-defense in a state that insists you must first survive a DMV-level nightmare of paperwork, fees, waiting periods, classes, references, interviews, background checks, and then, only if the political winds aren’t blowing too hard that day, maybe they’ll hand you a slip of paper saying you can exercise what the Constitution already gave you.
And so began the slow-motion destruction of a man who had already lived through the most frightening moment of his life. Even though the shooting was justified, Foehner was now staring down the barrel of 15 to 25 years in prison — because the gun he used wasn’t on the approved list and because his personal collection didn’t match New York’s ever-changing licensing maze. When the average criminal gets arrested in New York, they’re out the same afternoon with a court date and a free metro card. But the Charles Foehner sentencing shows what happens when the system actually wants to punish somebody. Spoiler alert: it’s never the bad guy.
What drives this story into the realm of absurdity is that Foehner wasn’t some political activist, militia member, or even a vocal Second Amendment guy. He wasn’t trying to make a statement. He was just a guy who went outside for a smoke, got attacked, and defended himself. But that’s the trap — in places like New York, simply owning a firearm that isn’t properly logged in the government’s ledger turns you into the criminal, even if your attacker had fifteen prior arrests and was coming at you in the dark demanding money. That’s the twisted part: the state doesn’t judge you by the threat you faced, the fear you felt, or the split-second decisions you made to stay alive. They judge you by whether Albany has the right paperwork on file.
And of course, in typical Democrat-run-city fashion, politicians and prosecutors turn cases like this into messaging opportunities. They can’t stand the idea that a law-abiding citizen — especially an older one — used a gun to successfully defend himself. They hate the optics. They hate the reminder that the Second Amendment works. So instead of rewarding a man who prevented his own murder and potentially stopped future crimes, they used him as an example. A deterrent. A warning shot to every other New Yorker who still clings to the outdated belief that they have the right to protect their own life.
That’s why the Charles Foehner sentencing feels like something out of a dystopian novel: the state couldn’t get him for the shooting, so they got him for daring to own the gun he used in the shooting. It’s like saying, “Sure, you survived the mugger. Good for you. Now here’s four years in prison for using the wrong equipment.” It’s the closest thing America has to prosecuting someone for killing a wolf without the proper hunting permit.
And let’s address the elephant in the room: if this exact same situation happened in Florida, Texas, Tennessee, or half the country, Foehner wouldn’t be headed to prison. He’d be getting a handshake and maybe a plaque from the sheriff that said something like, “For Services Rendered in the Removal of a Violent Criminal From the Gene Pool.” But in New York, plaques are reserved for the criminals. Citizens get booking photos.
The saddest part? His attorney openly said the four-year plea deal was actually the best outcome he could have hoped for. Why? Because New York’s gun laws are written so that possessory charges — meaning simply having something you’re not supposed to have — are the easiest charges to prove. It doesn’t matter why you had it. It doesn’t matter how you used it. It doesn’t matter that it saved your life. It just matters that the gun wasn’t registered to the state’s liking. And if that sounds insane to you, congratulations — you’re still a normal person.
The Charles Foehner sentencing reminds us that the government doesn’t just want to regulate guns — it wants to regulate self-defense. It wants you fearful, compliant, and dependent. You can have criminals with 15 prior arrests walking free, but if you own a gun to defend yourself from one of them, you better make sure every serial number is filed in triplicate. If not, you may find yourself cuffed and fingerprinted for the crime of refusing to be a victim.
At the end of the day, this case isn’t really about one man’s mistake or one man’s moment of terror. It’s about a system that punishes the citizen and protects the criminal. A system where surviving an attack isn’t enough — you must also survive the state. A system where even a justified self-defense shooting can lead to prison because the government cares more about regulations than human life. And it’s a preview of what the Left wants for the entire country. If they could nationalize New York’s gun laws tomorrow, they would. Then every American would be one unexpected mugger away from either death or prosecution.
The Charles Foehner sentencing is a warning to every lawful gun owner in America: if your state hates the Second Amendment, you don’t really have the right to self-defense. You have the government’s conditional permission — and they can revoke it at any time. And they will, if it helps them make a political point.
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