We wrote the other day about the refusal of a District Attorney in upstate NY to prosecute a man for having 9 bullets in his legal 10-round magazine, which exceeded the new state limit of 7 bullets under the so-called SAFE Act.
While the District Attorney declined to make a sweeping stand against the SAFE Act, the vast majority of county legislatures have passed resolutions against the SAFE Act and police unions also have protested the law
Numerous Sheriffs and county clerks also are refusing to enforce the law as reported by Gannett, SAFE Act compliance elusive, upstate sheriffs critical of law:
Some upstate officials are balking at provisions of New York’s gun-control law, saying the regulations are unclear and burdensome.Erie County Sheriff Timothy Howard, for example, said this month that he won’t enforce the controversial SAFE Act because he disagrees with it. He is one of five sheriffs to sign onto a lawsuit seeking to have the law overturned.“If you know this is wrong, you can’t enforce it,” Howard told WGRZ in Buffalo, a Gannett television station….Putnam County Sheriff Donald Smith was one of the sheriffs to sign onto to the legal brief in support of the lawsuit. He said he will enforce the law, but he also has the right to speak out against it. He said the law, which expands an assault-weapons ban and limits the number of bullets in a magazine to seven, will make citizens less safe.“When we perceive a law is not well designed and will not promote the public good, then I strongly believe we have a duty to do what we can within the legal processes to oppose and change the law and to help craft a better one,” Smith said….Assemblyman Bill Nojay, R-Pittsford, Monroe County, said he expects there will be widespread non-compliance with the SAFE Act. By next April, gun owners will have to register their weapons with the state to be included in a new State Police database. That database won’t be made public.Nojay will be a featured speaker at a gun rally at the Capitol on June 11, along with Jeanine Pirro, a television host and former Westchester County district attorney.“I don’t know of a single county clerk or sheriff or mental health office north of Westchester County that is going to comply with the SAFE Act,” Nojay said.
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