I used to belong to the Downtown Pistol and Rifle Club or something like that. I think it was on Murray St. between like Chambers and Broadway. You might call them, too.
scottgun said:
but in New York State, you need a NYS Pistol Permit just to touch a handgun
This certainly was NOT true a few years ago unless there were substantial changes to the NY state pistol laws in the last few years (I am no longer a resident so have not kept up on the "minutiae" of the laws). As a club member and a licensee, I could bring guests in, even foreigners, yes, no problem. The Club manager new the laws and followed them, but this was not part of them. They also held my pistols there while I awaited my license, and I could go shoot them w/o a license under their supervision on their premises. This was the law, not them ignoring it. Now, it might have changed in the last few years.
The only other fun gun things I can think of in Manhattan is maybe check out the Beretta Gallery on the upper east side on Madison. I got a shotgun from them once and believe me, that's not my normal kinda store. This is one of their "flagship" stores that has all their branded accessories and even $60,000 double guns.
You might look into if the Museum of Natural history or other museums have any cool old collections - I never did that when I lived there.
Have fun. Tip: most of the so-called "gentleman's clubs" are neither really clubs or very gentlemanly. There's plenty of fun stuff to do in NYC - like say visiting the USS Intrepid, for a fun bachelor's party. But if you are just going one night, you may not have time to do much touristy things.
Have a great time either way!
