GOUVERNEUR, NY - The State Assembly downstate leadership pushed more than a dozen new bills through the Assembly last week that would significantly tighten gun regulation in NY State.

The 13 bills that passed the assembly would have massive financial impact for gun owners, dealers, manufacturers, and resellers.  Among them are several bills that are a direct reaction to the recent Binghampton, NY shooting that left 13 people dead in an immigration center last month. One bill even cites that specific shooting in an example advocating tighter restrictions though it is unlikely it would have made any difference.

That bill, A00801A, would require firearms licenses to be renewed every 5 years, and require a firearms safety course to be completed each time as well.  Another of the bills bans .50 caliber weapons and not only prevents their sale but would require current owners to turn them in to the State.  A massive law passed as A01093 would require significant changes to business owner's who sell guns, requiring huge amounts of additional recordkeeping, require dealers to maintain at least $1 Million dollars in liability insurance, prohibit entry to individuals under the age of 18, force dealers to secure all weapons and ammo in their shops, no longer employ anyone under the age of 21, require the gun dealer to educate the purchaser in 'safe' use and storage of weapons, and require the State Police to keep track of it all.

Bill A01326 requires that every firearm manufactured, sold or imported into NY state must have a childproofing device on it.  A separate bill would make it a criminal offense to keep a firearm without having it in a locked box with the ammunition stored separately.  The stated intent of this bill is to prevent children from accessing the firearms but opponenets say that in a household without children, forcing gun owners to keep their ammunition and guns in separately locked areas rather defeats the purpose of a firearm kept for self-defense.

Another of the laws would require all semi-automatic pistols to microstamp ammunition they fire so that an expended round can be more readily matched to the gun that fired it.

The downstate legislators that passed these bills are seemingly unaware that in Upstate NY, "children" often need to purchase, and fire weapons, whether for self-defense or when hunting for food or sport.  When a legal household can be established at age 16, preventing a 16-year-old from purchasing a weapon is also removing the ability for them to hunt as a means of providing food to their household, or from protecting their land or livestock from predators, human or otherwise.

Legislators from Upstate NY on both sides of the political divide voted against these bills, including both Dede Scozzafava and Addie Russell. Scozzafava said "multiple pieces of legislation passed the Assembly that will place further restrictions on sportsmen, hunters and other lawful gun owners throughout New York State.  I share in the frustration of these law-abiding residents.

"If we are trying to prevent gun-related violence, we must stop treating the symptoms and start treating the problem.  It is not the responsible sportsmen, hunters and others who have lawfully obtained their firearms who are the problem, instead, it is those who have illegally obtained firearms and have chosen to commit criminal acts. "

At almost the same time, legislators in the state of Montana enacted a law that removes significant amounts of controls on firearms and prevents the federal government from exercising any control over gun ownership or manufacture that takes place within the state of Montana.  That bill, which passed both houses and was signed into law a few weeks ago, enacted at a time when the Obama administration is pushing for tighter federal gun control laws, states among other things, that a firearm made in and kept in the state of Montana "is not subject to federal law or federal regulation, including registration, under the authority of congress to regulate interstate commerce. It is declared by the legislature that those items have not traveled in interstate commerce.”

Further, “It is declared by the legislature that basic materials, such as unmachined steel and unshaped wood, are not firearms, firearms accessories, or ammunition and are not subject to congressional authority to regulate firearms, firearms accessories, and ammunition under interstate commerce as if they were actually firearms, firearms accessories, or ammunition. The authority of congress to regulate interstate commerce in basic materials does not include authority to regulate firearms, firearms accessories, and ammunition made in Montana from those materials. Firearms accessories that are imported into Montana from another state and that are subject to federal regulation as being in interstate commerce do not subject a firearm to federal regulation under interstate commerce because they are attached to or used in conjunction with a firearm in Montana.”

NY State Sen. Aubertine expressed concern regarding these Assembly bills as they move to the Senate, indicating in his column this week, that "this legislation goes too far and would have little, if any, effect on gun violence. Rather these bills would just put new and onerous restrictions on law abiding gun owners and sportsmen."