Cuomo Gun Control Law Denounced By Police Union
Albany, NY – Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s strict gun control has been condemned by a police union located in the backyard of the New York state capitol.
The Albany police union formally announced that it “condemns and opposes” the SAFE Act (i.e., the Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act) and is calling for its repeal because the measure was more about politics than public safety.
The law was rushed through the state legislature in January by Gov. Cuomo and his allies after the mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Even Cuomo himself has admitted the law is flawed in that one provision banning magazines that hold more than seven rounds is unworkable because no manufacturer makes seven-round magazines. The provision was suspended indefinitely according to lawmakers.
In a four-page letter to Cuomo and other other New York elected officials, Albany Police Officers Union president Thomas Mahar declared in part: “Substantively, we believe that it violates fundamental constitutional rights, that it is unduly and purposely burdensome on law-abiding citizens, and that it will not deter criminals or mentally ill individuals from plotting and carrying out bloodshed and violence.”
Added Mahar: “We as police officers are on the front lines of public safety. Respectfully, none of you are. We see, feel, work, and live with the effects of gun violence in ways that you do not. We believe that you see gun violence as a means to move your agenda and your ambitions forward. You know that the SAFE Act will not work in the way that you pretend it will. You know that this shameful SAFE Act was about ideology and politics and not about making anyone safer.”
Other law enforcement agencies in the state have expressed strong reservations about if not outright opposition to the gun control law, which is also subject to a legal challenge in court. Over 50 New York counties along with many cities and towns have passed resolutions opposing the new law.
Separately, at least one law-abiding citizen recent had his guns wrongly confiscated by the New York State Police based on the improper application of the mental-health provisions of the SAFE Act. He was forced to go to court to obtain reinstatement of his gun license.
