By Sam Shapiro
ALBANY, NY (WENY) – Elected leaders in Albany have passed and signed into law a package of sweeping gun reform bills. Law enforcement leaders across the state are calling out lawmakers and the Governor for rushing these new rules.
The New York State Sheriff’s Association said in a statement the new requirements restrain and punish law-abiding citizens.
Chemung County Sheriff Bill Schrom says these new rules will have zero effect on criminals. Sheriff Schrom says there are roughly 8,000 carry permit holders in his county, and those holders will now be subjected to more regulation and restrictions.
“Every new law passed has zero effect on the bad guy; they don’t adhere to that anyway,” Sheriff Bill Schrom said. “The only people this affects are the law-abiding citizens continuously on the receiving end of more restrictions.”
After the Supreme court handed down a ruling that allowed all pistol permit holders to carry concealed regardless of the endorsement of the permit, state leaders in Albany passed and signed into law new guidelines that further restrict where someone can legally carry a gun.
“They have put so many restrictions on where you can carry it, I don’t know if there’s any locations where you can carry it,” Schrom said. “Basically, if it’s deemed constitutionally ok, we’re (New York State) going to find our own way to restrict it. You can’t carry it here, you can’t carry it there, essentially ruling out about every place you could carry it, otherwise, you’re going to be subject to arrest.”
In the letter from the New York State Sheriff’s Association, the association says lawmakers in Albany rushed the new gun control laws and circumvented the constitutional requirement of a minimum 3-day study and discussion period before voting on it. Also, the burden of enforcing these new laws falls onto law enforcement leaders across the Empire State. Those law enforcement agencies will now have to come up with the resources to enforce these new rules — especially for new pistol permit applicants.
Sheriff Schrom said, “Who’s going to pay for the ammo, who’s going to pay for the overtime of the officers giving that training, or will it be pushed on private individuals?” Schrom said. “There are some things that are not extremely clear, and you always wonder how are we going to support some of these mandates.”
These new laws go into effect at different times. Some went into effect Wednesday, some will go into effect in September, and some of them are sitting in a status of limbo. The entire letter from the New York State Sheriff’s Association can be found here.
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