” Many New York gun owners expect the April 15 deadline to register assault weapons under the state’s strict new law to be largely ignored.
“ People are pretty much convinced once they get on this registration, the next time they’ll say they’ve got to turn them in,” said Stephen Aldstadt, president of the Shooters Committee on Political Education, who helped organize a protest at the Capitol this past week against the law.
The state’s SAFE Act, spearheaded by Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo and passed in the wake of the 2012 school shooting in neighboring Connecticut, bans New York sales of semi-automatic weapons with detachable magazines and one military-style feature.
For an estimated 1 million older guns already owned by New Yorkers, including popular AR-15s, the law requires registration. State police have established simple online registrations but refuse to say how many they’ve received. Cuomo, when asked, said he didn’t know.
Critics say that’s because hardly anyone is signing up. Aldstadt said his group, which counts more than 300,000 members statewide, isn’t telling people to disobey the law. But some owners have said they won’t do it, while others are removing features, such as pistol grips, from their semi-automatics so they won’t meet the state’s definition of an assault weapon.
“ I refuse to comply,” said Jeff Tutuska, a graphic artist from West Seneca who was among a few thousand at the Capitol protest. He held a sign saying: “I’d rather have it & not need it than need it & not have it.”
Reuben Tompkins, 59, of Greenville, said he didn’t know of anyone who planned to register a gun under the new law. “I hope nobody does,” he said. “
We’ll let an American of considerably great stature than Andy Cuomo have the last word :
So as you can see , we are only doing our civic duty as told by none other than the third president of the US , Thomas Jefferson.
Read on and take heart … you are not alone.
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YouViewed/Editorial 