Lewis County became the third in New York to officially oppose Governor Cuomo's SAFE Act gun control law.
The Lewis County legislators passed a resolution on Tuesday calling for the governor to “set aside and annul this ill conceived and poorly drafted statute which abridges the rights of law-abiding citizens of the State of New York.”
“It was pushed too fast with no due consideration,” Legislator Paul M. Stanford, D-Watson, said of the New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement, or NY SAFE, Act.
Lewis County now joins Ulster and Oswego Counties legislatures that passed similar resolutions this week. In addition to the specific provisions of the bill, each of the county resolutions noted the process by which the governor pushed the bill through (http://exm.nr/UHfb1R).
The counties take issue with the fact that the state assembly and senators had less than an hour to review the bill before it was put up for a vote.
But, it is the law's perceived infringement on the citizens' 2nd Amendment rights that is the main issue. “This law infringes on my constitutional and civil rights to keep and bear arms,” said Floyd J. Rivers, a former Department of Defense employee and pistol instructor. It was Rivers that initially brought the issue before the Lewis County Board. “It does nothing to curtail gun violence and effectively turns countless law-abiding gun owners into criminals for absolutely no reason. I do not consider myself a criminal nor do I want to be made one with the stroke of a pen.”
“Criminals don’t care about the law,” Mr. Rivers said. “That’s why they’re criminals.”.
County Sheriff Michael P. Carpinelli said that the state legislation was passed without input from county sheriffs and that the state Sheriffs Association is now trying to work with the governor and other state leaders to make changes to it.
As of today, 288 county sheriffs and sheriffs' associations across the country have stated they will not enforce President Obama's Federal gun control measures as they are seen as infrngements on people's 2nd Amendment rights as well.
The SAFE Act also is being challenged in court by New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, along with the Westchester County Firearms Owners Association, the Sportsmen’s Association for Firearms Education and AR15.com in a suit filed on Jan.30th.
The plaintiffs' suit states that the SAFE Act does, in part: "unconstitutionally criminalizes and bans the possession of certain firearms, ammunition and large capacity feeding devices that were legally possessed by plaintiffs prior to the legislation’s passage and enforcement, and in which the plaintiff’s had a cognizable property interest. The outright criminalization and ban of these firearms, ammunition and large capacity feeding devices amounts to a deprivation and taking of them by the State of New York under color of law and without due process or just compensation. As such, passage and enforcement of the NY SAFE Act effectuates an unconstitutional taking of private property under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution" (http://bit.ly/Wyxnsj).
On Thursday, February 28th , there is going to be a "Civil Rights – 2nd Amendment Rally" at noon at the Legislative Building, 80 Swan Street, in Albany.
This rally, sponsored by: National Rifle Association, NSRPA, activist JJ Johnson–Smith and the Second Amendment Foundation, is to protest the recent anti-gun legislation passed by New York Governor Cuomo (http://exm.nr/UQakJl).
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