Opinion
October 28, 1996.
Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Kings County (Tomei, J.), rendered December 21, 1994, convicting him of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence.
Before: Rosenblatt, J.P., O'Brien, Sullivan and McGinity, JJ.
Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.
There is no merit to the defendant's contention that the court erred in failing to instruct the jury that possessing a weapon for the purpose of self-defense is not unlawful. Justification based on self-defense pertains only to the use of physical force and does not apply to a crime based on the possession of a weapon, even though an element of the crime is that the defendant possessed the weapon with the intent to use it unlawfully against another ( see, People v Pons, 68 NY2d 264; People v Almodovar, 62 NY2d 126).