New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a gun control bill into law Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013, taking the lead in the nation's legislative response to the Sandy Hook school shooting. The bill went easily through the state legislature and also had the support of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, according to New York Daily News.
The new bill took effect immediately banning semi-automatic weapons that have at least one military-style feature. People who already possess these now-illegal weapons have the choice of selling them outside the state of New York or registering their weapons in a statewide database. There is a time limit of one year in which they can decide their course of action.
Ammunition purchases must now be registered, too, according to the New York Daily News.
The package also bans any gun magazine that can hold more than seven rounds of ammunition, down from the current 10. It requires background checks of ammunition buyers. And ammo dealers will have to register with the state so police can track in real time if someone is stockpiling bullets
CNN reports that the gun registry and licensing standard will now be uniform across the state instead of each county or municipality setting its own standard. CNN also highlights an area of the bill that is quite unsettling. The state government of New York will have a deeper reach into the lives of those who battle mental illness.
New York's mental health professionals will be governed by a new and controversial set of rules that require them to report their patients to the state should those patients exhibit behavior suggesting that they could be harmful to themselves or others.
"We're opening up an unprecedented window into what goes on in the therapy room," said Dr. Paul S. Appelbaum, director of the Division of Law, Ethics, and Psychiatry at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
"It would effect a major change in the usual presumptions of confidentiality."
According to Twitchy.com, Sean Hannity is so distressed by the new legislation that he is considering moving out of New York. He was one of the New York gun owners who were “outed” by the Journal News in their controversial list of legal gun owners. He posted on Twitter:
@seanhannity I gotta get outta NY. #guncontrolbaloney #LNYHBT
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