New York’s SAFE ACT is shredding the US Constitution, so why not shred gun registration forms?
That was the premise of hundreds of Second Amendment supporters in Buffalo, N.Y., who were symbolically protesting the requirement to register so-called assault weapons, the deadline in the state for which was Tuesday. The event occurred outside the Walter J. Mahoney State Office Building in downtown Buffalo. See embed below.
Said one protester , “We will not register our firearms, any firearms whatsoever. It’s been done before, historically. And historically, registration has always led to confiscation.”
Last month, about a thousand gun registration forms were burned i n Saratoga Springs, N.Y., by gun rights advocates.
The the Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act was rushed through the state legislature in January 2013 by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his allies after the mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut .
The law has withstood several constitutional challenges so far, although additional legal actions filed by gun rights advocates are still pending in federal and state court.
Under the April 15 deadline , “Gun owners who lawfully possessed guns that are now on the banned list were allowed to keep their weapons, but had to register them with the state police. They were also given the option of selling their guns to a licensed New York dealer or out-of-state buyer by Jan. 15 of this year. Those who fail to comply could face a misdemeanor charge or — if they were already disqualified from owning a gun because of a prior criminal conviction or other reason — a potential felony.”
As The Inquisitr has previously reported , the state of New York has 62 counties, and at least 52 counties have already passed resolutions opposing the SAFE Act.
Last year at this time, the Albany police union, in the backyard of the state capitol, formally condemned the SAFE Act and called for its repeal.
In what could be another form of protest against the SAFE Act, apparently perhaps only about 3,000 assault weapons have been registered so far out of several hundred thousand or more owned in the state.
Do you think gun control laws like the SAFE Act will contribute in any way to actually reducing gun violence or crime?
[Image via Shutterstock]