Erie County Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs, Inc.

Erie County Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs, Inc.

Member of NEW YORK STATE CONSERVATION COUNCIL

3/13/13

Governor Cuomo:

The Erie County Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs is an umbrella organization of forty nine hunting, fishing, trapping and conservation clubs, representing 10000 individual members. With regard to the NYS SAFE Act, this is a flagrant example of a “gun-grab” action by the leaders of our state government and not even a subtle approach to the eventual goal of complete confiscation of guns from our populace. It appears that you want to lead this parade. For those who say that the “pro-gunners” are over-reacting, we simply reply, “You obviously have NOT studied your history.” Laws such as the SAFE Act blatantly attack the specific RIGHT to keep and bear arms for defense that is guaranteed by the Second Amendment. Our founders did not write the Second Amendment in order to guarantee a right to hunt. They wrote it right after the First Amendment. Why? They remembered England and why they fled it in the first place. FREEDOM! Some argue that the SAFE ACT is not confiscation. True. But it is one more step down the slippery slope to that end.

The way you and the State Legislature rushed this bill through for a vote, disdainfully ignoring the proper procedures for passing legislation, was contemptible. Those procedures were put in place in order to avoid passage of bills without giving the public time to give considered reaction and thoughtful input into proposed legislation. Those procedures were only meant to be put aside in times of dire emergencies. No such emergency existed, other than your blatant need to have NY be the first state to pass “gun control” laws in order to further your political ambitions. Ignoring those procedures resulted in a law which was ridiculously flawed. For example, police officers are in violation of the law if they fully load the weapons most of them carry on duty. They are also guilty of a crime if they merely carry those weapons onto school property, even in response to something like the Sandy Hook shootings. This callous disregard of proper legislative procedures alone should be reason for repealing this law.

Most frequently the reason given for the need for passage of the SAFE Act is that it is a powerful deterrent to the terrible epidemic of “gun violence” in this country. This is nothing but political pandering, preying on the lack of knowledge on firearms and firearms issues by the general public. First, while there may be a few reasonable provisions in this act, none of them have to do with the registration and/or banning of any type of “assault weapons.” Criminals by their very definition break laws. They are not going to pay any attention to this law at all. Second, even the most minimal amount of research would reveal that these types of laws are not effective in deterring violence committed with guns. Despite the fact that gun ownership has dramatically risen since the expiration of the “Clinton Gun Ban” in 2004, “gun violence” has dramatically decreased. The Clinton Justice Dept. conducted a survey of 51 studies after enactment of the 1994 “Clinton Gun Ban” and concluded there was no credible evidence that such laws affected ”gun violence.” Just a couple of weeks ago, an internal memo from the Obama administration’s Justice Dept. surfaced coming to the same conclusion. See the following link for details:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/02/19/justice-dept-internal-memo-admits-gun-buybacks-assault-weapons-bans-and-large-capacity-magazine-restrictions-dont-work/

Finally, in case you haven’t seen this, here is a link to the various county legislatures that have written resolutions opposing the SAFE ACT. It is being updated frequently as the list continues to grow. Perhaps it’s time that you really start to represent all of the citizens of NY, not just your NYC-Long Island base.

Resolution quick list

Thank you for your consideration of the above comments. Hopefully, you will make the right decision and support repeal of the SAFE Act.