Posted on 12/09/2013 3:47:13 PM PST by neverdem
New Yorkers gauge registration and confiscation of firearms in the aftermath of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s landmark gun control law, the Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act of 2013.
“The next relevant deadline is April 16, 2014 the date the people are supposed to have their long arms registered,” said Assemblyman William R. Nojay (R. – Pittsford).
The registration system is in place and firearm owners can register today, he said.
Low compliance rates will put the governor in an interesting position especially in an election year, said Nojay. “I think registration rates are going to be less than 10 percent.”
County clerks, district attorneys, county sheriffs and local law enforcement do not want to enforce the S.A.F.E. Act which is now the governor’s law, he said. “They regard it as having nothing to do with law enforcement, it will not prevent crime, it will not prevent tragedy, it is a law of pure politics and they don’t want to have anything to do with it.”
Cuomo is telling people he will enforce the law, he said. “This governor walks into every room looking for a fight and if he can’t find one he’ll start one.”
“This is a constitutional crisis in the making,” he said. “The question is: Will the governor start pounding the table to force them to be the enforcer.”
Cuomo is up for re-election in 2014, said Nojay. “State-wide opinion of Cuomo relative to the S.A.F.E. act will determine how aggressive he becomes about using the state police to enforce the law.”
Joseph A. D’Amico, superintendent of the New York State Police since 2011, is not a trooper himself and is in his position to be the governor’s enforcer, he said. “That creates tensions within the state’s police department.”
Nojay said D’Amico is a problem.
“We receive lots of reports of deep, bitter resentment against the superintendent,” said the attorney and radio talk show host.
D’Amico is not respected and not liked, he said. “He is regarded as a political hack rather than a law enforcement professional.”
“I don’t think Cuomo will confiscate firearms as long as we stay vigilant and vocal,” said Assemblyman Dr. Stephen M. Katz (R. – Mohegan Lake).
Cuomo who has aspirations to be elected president in 2016 already knows the S.A.F.E. Act has hurt his chances, he said. “His absolutely irresponsible behavior regarding the S.A.F.E. Act has him ridiculed around the country.”
Coming into the governor’s re-election campaign next year, Katz said the fact that the GOP has yet to come-up with a viable candidate is one problem; another issue is the lack of gun owner representation at the voting booth. “Twenty-percent of sportsman and hunters did not go out and vote in the last gubernatorial election.”
It is incumbent upon supporters of the Second Amendment to vote and get people out to vote, he said. “Because otherwise we will be overwhelmed by the residents of New York City, and we all know how they are going to vote.”
Katz said there are provisions in the S.A.F.E. Act that authorize unfair protections for ambiguous groups. For example, he said the law enhances the penalty of killing a “first responder” to a sentence of life in jail without parole. “The law does not define first responders and the term is too broad.”
Another example of inequitable provisions is the amendment to the S.A.F.E. Act that carved-out an exception for retired police officers, he said. “Why should it be that way? Why are we as citizens prevented from defending ourselves in the same way a retired police officer can?”
The S.A.F.E. Act is a poorly-written piece of legislation by a governor who is a bully and a legislature who are cowards, he said. “The law is 50 percent benevolence and 50 percent incompetence which is what we see from the Cuomo administration more than anything else.”
“The New York City Police Department issued a directive to commence confiscation of firearms,” said Thomas H. King, president of the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association. NYSRPA is the state’s largest and the nation’s oldest firearms advocacy organization.
The NYPD have been collecting records on gun owners ever since Raymond Walter “Ray” Kelly was appointed commissioner in 2002, he said. “The recent confiscation directive comes directly from One Police Plaza – which Kelly operates.”
NYSRP initiated two lawsuits this year; one in New York City that questions whether the city’s pistol licensing procedures violate the Second Amendment; and one in U.S. District Court, Western District of New York that asserts violations against the passage and enforcement of the S.A.F.E. Act which is pending before Judge William M. Skretny.
It is difficult to be successful in any lawsuit in New York City because of “Home Rule”, said King who is a National Rifle Association board member. “For the past 20-years New York City lawmakers have had the legislative power to write their own laws to make existing law more restrictive, as long as it does not contravene state law.”
In the case of the S.A.F.E. Act, he said the city council reduced the ammunition capacity from a minimum of seven-rounds to five-rounds. “Nothing can be done in court to change this until the S.A.F.E. Act is overturned.”
The city’s restriction will have untold ramifications, said King. “There are a number of antique guns, for example, the Winchester level-action rifles would be illegal unless modified and ruined in value or sold out-of-state.”
King said downstate voters are not committed to gun rights.
“New York City – who holds the preponderance of the electorate, is doing their best to write all the laws.”
Correct. And most of them are law abiding citizens, the salt of the earth. But in a few months they will be jail bait. I don't think in the end it will end well for anybody in NY.like some college towns. The upstate people have suffered for years under the lash of the tyrants in the cities and in some places on Long Island who they think of them and treat them as ignorant yokels, merely to be scorned and ruled by their betters.
Most of the upstate is quite conservative, with the exception of a the big cities and a few Liberal enclaves in college towns. Cuomo, Bloomberg. DeBlasio, and Schumer are perfect examples of what these Nazis are like which inhabit these pest holes.
Too right, mate! I get the same thing because I am forced to live in Cali, and have gobstruck gibbering idiots go on about "Kalifornia" and "KaliPORNia", as if the bent wankers in SF, LA, and Berkeley somehow define us true patriots by their liberal shoutspeech.
No bloody way I endorse any of that, and just because I have to live in this state does not mean I am therefore not doing anything in My power to circumvent those elite liberal socialist snobs!
There used to be a check and balance to this power. Some states had real Senates where Senators represented geographical areas rather than gerrymandered population groups. This gave rural voters a measure of power to prevent cities from riding roughshod over them.
In the 70’s, as I recall, the Supreme Court ruled that such arrangements were “unconstitutional” even though they mirror the structure of the Federal government, and required states to change their constitutions to require representation by population, the so called, one man, one vote, rule.
That is a major reason that cities have such enormous power inside of States.
I recall telling a “liberal” colleague about this. He said, “Oh No!” You have it backwards! the counties would not let the cities enact needed legislation! They were holding them back!
Sixties. Look up Reynolds v. Sims and Baker v. Carr.
I just read about the decision. All based on insane twisting of wording, as though a “republican” government meant a pure democracy. The disasters that the Roosevelt revolution in the courts caused this country just keep on. Everything that was predicted to happen, happened. I have to believe there is justice in an afterlife, because those Supreme Court justices certainly deserved enormous punishment for their corruption.
Wouldn’t it be interesting if the upstaters (where the hunters and rural folk live) resist and take it to the city morons.
I’ve always read that the best places to bury guns in in graveyards and junk yards. I know the location of several former public dumps.
Then I’ve heard you could bury your guns, then sow the ground with nails and other bits of metal. The best metal I’ve found is old fence wire, slugs punched out from iron,
I’ve got a place where lots of old nail infested lumber was burned. It is almost two inches thick with rusted bent nails, all under the sod.
Not as good. Here's why: They won't have an explanation for the signature and will therefore have to investigate. Give them something to find that is cause for blowing it off.
Arch...Stanton!
Un-k, un-k, dere’s no name on it!
*** and will therefore have to investigate.***
Let them investigate! Tons of old nails, buried old fence wire, 100 years of accumulated junk, cast iron plumbing, broken plow points, private garbage dump(no longer used) over a 15 acre patch of land. That is a lot of investigating they will have to do!
That works. Didn’t know the scale.
New Yorkers, just hide your guns, problem solved.
Every geezer with a metal detector knows you check the hole after you dig something out.
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