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Cole: The Law Is A Total Mess

January 18, 2013

BATH, NY - Steuben County Sheriff David Cole has issued the following statement:

Sheriff David V. Cole has been reviewing the 2013 NYS Safe Act that was passed into law in the State of New York by Governor Andrew Cuomo. After reviewing the law and consulting with a variety of other law enforcement officials in our area Sheriff Cole would like to make the following public statement in regards to the new legislation:

Violence usually occurs with illegally possessed firearms and long guns, not legally registered weapons in the hands of law abiding citizens. These laws will now make it so thousands and thousands of law abiding citizens, who go to work, pay their taxes, and concerned about their children’s furture, will now considered criminals if they choose to stand up for the Second Amendment Rights guaranteed under the US Constitution. Changing from a “two feature” test to a “one feature” test makes thousands of weapons that have been legally possessed for decades now illegal.

The new law expands the definition of an assault weapon.

Many shotguns, used every day for legitimate and legal purposes will now be considered illegal now. The law has added the thumb-hole stock classification to the definition of an assault weapon, but it does not make them any more lethal. The political input into this law has been applied because rifles and shotgun in this configuration look “scary”, but in most cases do not alter the weapons functionality in any manner. The application of certain provisions of this new law seems to be more relevant to the manufactures that altered the pistol grip version of these weapons, such as the AK-47, but does not add to the lethality of the weapon in any manner.

The Steuben County Sheriff Office has the following stance on the new laws:

1. A strong review and legislative action on violent movies and video games has been completely overlooked and is needed. There are currently no set of laws or regulations in place to monitor of these areas that have been known to contribute to violence.
2. There is an immediate need to institute gun safety training programs and proper storage of all firearms.
3. These new laws were hastily constructed with no provisions or protocol for the implementation or prosecution of the law. There is real concern for all law enforcement agencies having to enforce the new laws and having to interpret them.
4. Any new gun control regulations need to be explored, reviewed and then implemented correctly. The hast in which the new law was enacted has left many concerns as to the new provisions and old provisions, such as an exemption for people engaged in law enforcement and members of the military, that were overlooked.
5. The new laws are creating a constitutional crisis that will cause citizens, which includes men and women in uniform in our County, to have to choose which side of the line they will be standing on.
6. Most crimes involving guns are carried out with illegally possessed weapons, not registered ones.
7. There is no issue that law enforcement agrees with increased penalties for gun crimes.
8. The biggest deterrent to school violence is to have armed School Resource Officers (SRO’s) in the schools. Where is the funding to protect our children, the most valuable resource we have in our County? Is the protection at Airports or in our Courtrooms more of a concern than our children?
9. There was no mechanism in the new law to address how the registration of the assault weapons will be conducted or where the cost for such program will be funded through.
10. The media is part of the problem. Sensationalizing the shooters and suspects involved in the mass shootings needs to change. Can anyone name a victim from the Columbine shooting that started this recent series of events? The killers, whose names I will not repeat as they have been repeated to often, have become “well known” after death for their crimes while their victims remain anonymous. Ordinary people with severe mental health issues see that they now have the ability to “go out” being known instead of alone and unknown, thanks to the media reporting their violent acts over and over.

Sheriff Cole will be attending the New York State Sheriff’s Conference in Albany in the coming week where the new laws will be discussed at length and an official reaction form Sheriff Office’s across New York State will be drafted. The heart of these new laws is not only the peoples Constitutional Rights under the Second Amendment, but all the rights guaranteed to us by our Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

"Gun control? It's the best thing you can do for crooks and gangsters. I want you to have nothing. If I'm a bad guy, I'm always gonna have a gun. Safety locks? You will pull the trigger with a lock on, and I'll pull the trigger. We'll see who wins." – Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, whose testimony convicted John Gotti

"Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, citizens who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom." – John F. Kennedy