According to gun rights commentator Liberty Doll in her recent video, this story starts on a dark May night in 2023 in Queens.
Around 2 a.m., 67-year-old Charles Foehner was walking home near a parking garage.
Liberty Doll says he was suddenly approached by 32-year-old Cody Gonzalez.
Gonzalez allegedly lunged at Foehner, demanding cash and cigarettes while holding a sharp object in his hand.
She explains that it was dark, tense, and quick.
Even after Foehner pulled a gun, Liberty Doll says Gonzalez kept charging toward him.
Foehner fired, hitting Gonzalez four times in the chest.
Gonzalez turned, tried to run, and then collapsed in the street.
Liberty Doll notes that Foehner himself dialed 911 to report what happened.
There was no attempt to flee or hide the incident.
Only later, she says, did police determine the “sharp object” in Gonzalez’s hand was actually a pen.
But Liberty Doll also points out that Gonzalez was reportedly carrying a gun as well, making the encounter even more dangerous in hindsight.
A Violent Past vs. A Clean Record
Liberty Doll stresses that Gonzalez was not some random harmless passerby.
She reports that he had 15 prior arrests dating back to 2004.
Those arrests, she says, included robbery and gun charges, along with a history of mental illness. Earlier that same night, Gonzalez had allegedly been seen smashing windows around the neighborhood.
By contrast, Liberty Doll says Foehner had no criminal record.
He was a 67-year-old retired doorman, working at a deli, and living near the courthouse.
She notes that he told prosecutors that his neighborhood was crime-ridden and that he didn’t feel safe.
Looking at the attempted robbery, she argues, it’s hard to say he was wrong about that.
In her framing, this is exactly the kind of scenario most people picture when they talk about self-defense.
Older citizen.
Younger, violent, repeat offender lunging in the dark with a weapon.
Gun pulled. Shots fired. Life-or-death call made in seconds.
From Self-Defense Shooting To 25 Gun Charges
Liberty Doll says the good news was that Foehner was not ultimately charged with murder.
Authorities apparently accepted that he was acting in self-defense during the robbery attempt.
But in New York, she points out, the story never stops with just self-defense.
The real trouble started when Foehner admitted that the revolver he used was not legally owned.
Liberty Doll puts it bluntly: getting a legal gun in New York is “about as common as unicorn farts.”
That’s her way of saying the permitting and registration system is designed to be painful, slow, and restrictive.
Police went to Foehner’s apartment after the shooting.
According to Liberty Doll, that’s where they found what they called an “arsenal” of 26 handguns, revolvers, and rifles plus ammunition.
Because New York requires all firearms to be registered with the state, each unregistered gun became a separate problem.
Liberty Doll says Foehner had bought most of those guns back in the 1990s and never registered them as required under current law.
For that, she reports, he was hit with 25 separate weapons charges.
What began as a clear self-defense shooting spiraled into a massive paperwork and possession case.
To drive home how harsh the system is, Liberty Doll notes that his bail was set at $50,000.
This was for a senior citizen deli worker with no criminal history who lived practically next door to the courthouse.
She says the assistant district attorney openly argued that they needed to make an example of him because the city has “too many shootings.”
In her view, that line reveals a lot – the priority wasn’t just justice, it was sending a political message.
Why A 67-Year-Old Took The Plea Deal
According to Liberty Doll, Foehner was staring down the barrel of 25 years in prison.
At his age, that would functionally be a life sentence.
She spells it out: he’d be about 94 years old when he got out, assuming he even survived that long behind bars.
So as the case dragged on for more than two years, the risk of going to trial became impossible to ignore.
Ultimately, Liberty Doll reports that Foehner decided to take a plea deal.
He pled guilty to one count of criminal weapons possession to avoid the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison.
Now 67, he is scheduled to be sentenced to four years in prison at a hearing on January 14.
The prosecutor even tried to have him immediately remanded into custody before sentencing.
Liberty Doll says the judge at least allowed him to go home and spend Christmas with his family.
It’s a small mercy in a case that otherwise feels harsh and unforgiving.
She also highlights comments from his attorney, Thomas Kenniff – the same lawyer who defended Daniel Penny in his high-profile New York case.
Kenniff reportedly said that if Foehner had gone to trial, the illegal gun charges would have been easy for the state to prove.
Only six of his firearms were registered properly, according to Liberty Doll’s recounting of Kenniff’s statements.
The rest weren’t, which is a clear statutory violation under New York law.
Kenniff called Foehner a hero put in an impossible situation, Liberty Doll says.
He argued that in a fair, constitutional state, Foehner would be getting a plaque instead of a prison term.
What This Case Says About New York’s Gun Climate
Liberty Doll treats this case as more than just one man’s tragedy.
She frames it as another example of how New York punishes gun owners, even when they clearly act in legitimate self-defense.
She compares Foehner’s situation to the Dexter Taylor case.
In that case, she notes, Taylor didn’t shoot anyone or use a gun in self-defense at all – he was just an engineer building things at home – and still ended up in a maximum-security prison on gun charges.
By that measure, Liberty Doll dryly notes, Foehner is “getting the better end of the stick.”
But she clearly doesn’t mean that as real praise for the system.
From her perspective, New York’s message is simple.
If you dare to be armed in a high-crime area without perfect compliance with every registration rule, you are the problem – even if you save your own life.
That’s the part that feels upside down.
The violent repeat offender is dead, the would-be victim survives, and yet the state decides the real focus should be the man who refused to be another crime statistic.
It’s hard not to see the chilling effect built into that outcome.
How many older New Yorkers will look at this story and decide it’s safer – legally, at least – to go unarmed and hope for the best?
The Chilling Message To Ordinary New Yorkers
Liberty Doll ends on a sober note.
She admits that some updates she brings her audience are happy victories – this one isn’t.
It “could be worse,” she says, but it is still far from good.
A 67-year-old man will lose four years of his remaining life for the crime of surviving a violent attack with the wrong kind of gun, in the wrong jurisdiction.
Her coverage carries an underlying warning.
If the state is more outraged by an unregistered revolver than by a serial offender attacking a senior citizen at 2 a.m., something is badly off-balance.
From a broader view, this case looks like a clash between two realities.
On the street, the reality is that criminals choose the time and place, and older, weaker victims often only have seconds to react.
In the courtroom, the reality is that technical compliance and political optics can matter more than context or common sense.
Liberty Doll’s report suggests New York is firmly leaning toward the second reality, even when the first one nearly costs someone their life.
Cases like this send a clear signal to ordinary New Yorkers.
Yes, you have the right to live – but if you defend that life with a gun the state doesn’t like, you may end up paying for it in years behind bars.
And that, more than anything, is why stories like Charles Foehner’s resonate so strongly in the gun-rights world.
They aren’t just about guns – they’re about whether the law still understands the difference between a predator and a man who refused to be prey.
Ed spent his childhood in the backwoods of Maine, where harsh winters taught him the value of survival skills. With a background in bushcraft and off-grid living, Ed has honed his expertise in fire-making, hunting, and wild foraging. He writes from personal experience, sharing practical tips and hands-on techniques to thrive in any outdoor environment. Whether it’s primitive camping or full-scale survival, Ed’s advice is grounded in real-life challenges.
