By Samuel Short November 21, 2025 at 11:26am
If you live in a blue state, move out. If you live in a red state, be thankful you don’t live in a blue one.
Instead of praising a senior citizen for defending himself against a crazed attacker, New York is sending 67-year-old Charles Foehner to prison for four years.
On Thursday, Foehner was sentenced for one count of criminal weapons possession when he fatally shot Cody Gonzalez, a mugger who charged at him.
The New York Post reported Foehner was outside his home in Queens in the early hours of the morning in 2023 when Gonzalez — an individual with 15 arrests and a history of mental health issues — came at him with what looked like a knife.
The weapon in question turned out to be a pen, but Foehner was forced to act quickly to defend himself.
Shortly after his arrest, he told police he carried a silver revolver to protect himself, but the firearm was unlicensed. Prosecutors pursued charges not just for Foehner’s revolver, but for other guns he had in his home.
Queens senior citizen who fatally shot would-be mugger headed to prison for four years https://t.co/APWcddbaJz pic.twitter.com/GnK6fuxD4t
— New York Post (@nypost) November 20, 2025
The senior will spend four years in prison as part of a plea deal. His attorney, Thomas Kenniff, said further charges would not have been hard to prove, and his client would have faced a sentence of up to 25 years for those.
Should the Trump DOJ get involved and try to save this senior citizen from spending some of his golden years in prison?
Kenniff rightfully called his client a “hero,” stating New York’s “draconian” laws make it very difficult for law-abiding citizens like Foehner to get gun permits.
“If we respected people’s constitutional right, and provided practical means for citizens to exercise that right, Mr. Foehner would not be in the position he is in today.
“If this was a state and a city that had its affairs in order, Mr. Foehner would be getting a plaque, not a prison sentence.”
Indeed, Foehner does have a permit. It is the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Kenniff had done great work for the people of New York in successfully defending veteran Daniel Penny for an incident on a subway involving a homeless man in 2023. He knows how backward this state’s district attorneys can be.
CBS News reported comments made by Penny after his acquittal for the chokehold death of Jordan Neely aboard a New York subway on May 1, 2023. “The guilt I would have felt, if someone did get hurt, if [Neely] did do what we was threatening to do, I would never be able to live with myself.”
For defending his community, Penny was charged with criminally negligent homicide.
Defend yourself, defend your community — it does not matter. Criminals come first in New York.
The Trump Justice Department — presumably no fans of New York DAs — should investigate why this man is being taken from his family.
With each passing day that Americans live in blue states, they put themselves at risk for this to happen.
In the immortal words of the former president, Barack Hussein Obama, “elections have consequences.”
Sam Short is an Instructor of History with Motlow State Community College in Smyrna, Tennessee. He holds a BA in History from Middle Tennessee State University and an MA in History from University College London. The views expressed in his articles are his own and do not reflect the views or opinions of Motlow State Community College.
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