Your Honor,
I am respectfully writing this letter in support of my application for an Unrestricted Pistol License in Onondaga County, State of New York.
I would like to start out by giving you a little personal background about myself. I am 41 years old and I am married with two children. I have lived in Onondaga County for over 10 years now. I originally came here to complete my training at SUNY Upstate and I stayed here to live and raise my family. I am currently a General Surgeon practicing at ——– hospital here in Syracuse. I have included for your review a copy of my state medical license to help confirm my background.
I was born and raised in New England. I have been an avid and responsible sportsmen, hunter, and shooter my entire life. At various times I have held memberships at different sporting clubs. I have also been an unrestricted concealed carry license holder in three other states in the past. As proof of this fact, I included a photocopy of all three licenses. Through the years I had all these licenses, I was a responsible, safe firearms owner. I always kept my firearms very secured and had no instances. As I am sure you are aware Mass. is one of the most difficult states in which to receive your unrestricted carry license. I believe an unrestricted license to carry a concealed firearm is a tremendous responsibility. This cannot be taken lightly, and I never took that responsibility lightly when traveling or during carry in other states. I have always sought out the proper training and continue to do so at all stages of my firearms owning life. I have included my most recent training here in Central New York, as well as a sampling of the training I received in the past to confirm to you that I have always sought out the proper training that I believe is incumbent upon a concealed carry permit holder to have.
As I stated earlier, I am a general surgeon practicing here in Syracuse. As you know medicine is a profession where the outcomes are certainly not guaranteed. No matter how much we are trained and how hard we may try, occasionally things don’t go the way we would like them too. This could be an awful tough thing for patients and their families to have to deal with. Unfortunately in my own career this has affected me deeply. I have had several instances in my career where I have been the target of threats of violence. In the past I have tried to brush these off as I understand how deeply affected patients and families can be at a time of crisis. I specialize in bariatric (weight loss) surgery. My patients are very high-risk and the surgeries themselves are very complicated and high risk.
I recently had a patient who was awaiting bariatric surgery threaten my life. He became unhappy with the fact that we had to cancel his surgery due to some unforeseen medical problems before we could even get started. We cancelled the surgery because it was in his best interest however he did not take it well. He threatened my life in front of many witnesses and had to be escorted out of the hospital by Security. I subsequently filed a police report that day with the Syracuse Police Department. Officer ——— of the Syracuse Police Department met me that day and took a report. The reason I thought this was a serious threat was this person had been incarcerated in the past and seemed capable of the violence he threatened. Luckily, the Dewitt police were able to provide my family with extra protection at our house in the form of extra patrols and walk around my home for a brief period of time after the incident. Needless to say this put quite a scare into our family.
I perform high-risk surgery on a very unique patient population. I have 10 partners in my group. They do not operate on the same patient population I do. Combined they have over 200 years’ experience. As you’re well aware I’m sure, violence against doctors is far too common. Even in this town a physician was shot by an unhappy patient. Just several months ago a patient shot two doctors in a clinic in Las Vegas. Some years ago a surgeon was shot in the waiting room at the Johns Hopkins Hospital by a patient’s family member. It’s a sad reality of modern medicine. Unfortunately due to what I’ve chosen do I put myself in harms way. I think the nature of my work and danger it seems to be subjecting me to makes me unique amongst my profession. The threat of violence in my case is not just theoretical it is real and now well documented. I hope and pray I never see this man again. I probably won’t. But who knows when the next person will come along to threaten my safety and the safety of my family. I love what I do for a living and I wouldn’t change it for the world. I just wish it didn’t come at such a high cost at times. I have devoted my life to the practice of medicine and surgery. I certainly have very little knowledge of the law. That said, I have spent some time trying to understand the case law surrounding New York’s concealed carry laws as it pertains to “just cause” to have and carry concealed. I think I understand it as well as any layperson can. I believe I am an upstanding citizen of good moral and ethical character. I believe that my extensive background and long history of safe ownership and carry of firearms; as well as, my position and standing in this community make me a good candidate for a concealed carry permit. I believe my history both in the past and in the present help me demonstrate “just cause” for an unrestricted conceal carry license. I humbly request that you grant me an unrestricted license to have and carry concealed in the state of New York.
Thank you for taking the time to read my letter.
Sincerely yours,