NY · jury_instructions
CJI2d[NY] Penal Law § 265.16
Criminal Sale Of A Firearm To A Minor
Under our law, a person is guilty of Criminal Sale Of A Firearm To A Minor when that person is not authorized pursuant to law to possess a firearm and that person unlawfully sells, exchanges, gives or disposes of a firearm to another individual who is or reasonably appears to be less than nineteen years of age who is not licensed pursuant to law to possess a firearm.
The following terms used in that definition have a special meaning:
A FIREARM means any pistol or revolver. ¹
POSSESS means to have physical possession or otherwise to exercise dominion or control over tangible property. ²
DISPOSE OF means to dispose of, give, give away, lease, loan, keep for sale, offer, offer for sale, sell, transfer and otherwise dispose of. ³
A person is NOT AUTHORIZED PURSUANT TO LAW TO POSSESS A FIREARM when that person has no legal right to possess a firearm.⁴ Under our law, with certain exceptions not applicable here, a person has no legal right to possess a firearm.⁵
A person UNLAWFULLY sells, exchanges, gives or disposes of a firearm to another individual when that person has no legal right to do so. Under our law, with certain exceptions not applicable here, a person has no legal right to sell a firearm.⁶
Under this count, the firearm need not be loaded but it must be operable. To be operable, a firearm must be capable of discharging ammunition. The person who possesses a firearm is not required to know that it was operable.⁷
In order for you to find the defendant guilty of this crime, the People are required to prove, from all the of evidence in the case, beyond a reasonable doubt, each of the following four elements:
1. That on or about (date) , in the County of (County), the defendant, (defendant's name), was not authorized pursuant to law to possess a firearm;
2. That the defendant unlawfully
Select applicable alternative(s):
sold, exchanged, gave or disposed of
a firearm to another individual;
3. That individual was [or reasonably appeared to be] less than 19 years of age and was not licensed pursuant to law to possess a firearm; and
4. That the firearm was operable.
If you find the People have proven beyond a reasonable doubt each of those elements, you must find the defendant guilty of this crime.
If you find the People have not proven beyond a reasonable doubt any one or more of those elements, you must find the defendant not guilty of this crime.
History
Caption: Criminal Sale Of A Firearm To A Minor Penal Law § 265.16 (Committed on or after Nov 1, 1992). Read from the committee's Word file. Prepared by the New York State Unified Court System Committee on Criminal Jury Instructions, Model Colloquies, and Evidence Rules; published by the Unified Court System at nycourts.gov (the internet edition is the only current and official publication of CJI2d).
Provenance
- Source
- nycourts.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-09-25
- Edition
- 2026-09-25
- Content hash
26e34db872d3104c0d47e30bccf8ca79de6c14d3ee33f5d61b0ef5ab83592dee
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