If you’re reading this in early 2026, take a quick look at your calendar. It’s been roughly three years since the landmark Bruen decision shook up the landscape of New York firearm laws. For thousands of New Yorkers, late 2022 and all of 2023 was a whirlwind of paperwork, fingerprinting, and sitting through an NYS CCW course to finally exercise their Second Amendment rights.

Welcome back to the fourth installment of our series, Shooting Simplified: Mastering the Fundamentals. If you’ve been following along, you’ve already started building a solid foundation. We’ve covered mindset, stance, and grip. Now, we’re moving into the "make or break" moment of every shot: the trigger press.

For over a century, if you lived in New York City or the surrounding suburbs and wanted to carry a firearm for self-defense, the answer from the state was almost always a resounding "no." Navigating the permit process wasn't just a maze; it was an uphill battle against a system designed to keep the average citizen disarmed. Then came June 23, 2022.

The headline in today’s Gothamist (March 25, 2026) likely sent a shiver down the spines of many New Yorkers: "The NYPD is not required to protect New Yorkers, city lawyers argue in court filing." For the average person, this sounds like a betrayal of the social contract. For those of us in the training world, it’s simply a public admission of a long-standing legal reality.