Key Takeaways
- Nine NYC residents filed a federal lawsuit against the city over delays in processing firearms license applications.
- The suit claims the NYPD’s License Division operates on a 12-to-18 month timeline, violating a six-month state law deadline.
- Many applicants faced long waits for fingerprint appointments and additional document requests after months of waiting.
- The lawsuit alleges deliberate indifference to Second Amendment rights, pointing to prior lawsuits and attorney demand letters.
- This case challenges systematic delays that effectively deny the constitutional right to bear arms.
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NEW YORK, NY – Nine New York City residents have filed a federal lawsuit against the city, alleging the NYPD’s License Division systematically delayed their firearms license applications for months and even years, effectively stripping them of their Second Amendment rights while their paperwork sat untouched.
The suit, Milani v. New York City, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in February 2025. It names New York City as the sole defendant and was brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, the federal civil rights statute.
New York State law sets a firm six-month deadline for licensing officers to both decide an application and issue the license if approved. Despite that mandate, the complaint alleges the NYPD’s License Division operates on a 12-to-18-month internal timeline. In one recorded phone call cited in the lawsuit, a License Division investigator confirmed that figure when asked about processing times. When a plaintiff pointed out the six-month legal deadline, the investigator reportedly replied that 12 to 18 months was simply “the general length.”
The complaint details delays at nearly every step of the process. Applicants waited months just to receive fingerprinting appointments. After being fingerprinted, many were told investigators would not be assigned for another six to nine months. Once investigators were assigned, some applicants received just five to ten business days to submit additional documents despite waiting more than a year for any contact at all. Approved applicants then faced further delays in receiving the physical license and Purchase Authorization needed to actually take possession of a firearm.
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One plaintiff, a Suffolk County truck driver who routinely enters New York City for work, waited over 18 months from application to license. Even then, the license arrived with the wrong firearm listed. Another plaintiff, a Navy veteran, filed an Article 78 petition in state court just to force a decision on his application. Several plaintiffs were only approved after their attorneys sent formal letters to the License Division threatening legal action.
The complaint also describes an NYPD License Division that does not answer phones, ignores emails, and at times allowed printers dedicated to issuing licenses to sit idle while approved applicants waited. One individual who retrieved his license in person reportedly witnessed the License Division Director personally ask officers which printers were working before printing the licenses herself.
The lawsuit alleges this constitutes a pattern and practice of deliberate indifference to Second Amendment rights. The city was aware of the delays through hundreds of attorney demand letters, approximately 20 Article 78 petitions filed in 2024 alone, and a prior federal lawsuit filed in 2023 raising similar claims against the same License Division.
The case is currently in the discovery phase. The city has already produced thousands of pages of documents, with more expected. The plaintiffs are represented by attorney Mirel Fisch of the Law Office of Mirel Fisch in Brooklyn.
The right to keep and bear arms does not pause while bureaucrats delay paperwork. When a government agency imposes what amounts to a waiting period of 18 months through administrative inaction, it is not processing an application. It is denying a constitutional right. This case is a direct challenge to that kind of systemic obstruction, and it matters to anyone who believes the Second Amendment means what it says.
