[NYAPRS Enews] Senate OKs SAFE Act Rollback

[Briana Gilmore]

NYAPRS Note: Amendments by the NYS Senate to the SAFE Act include a provision that would offer people deemed a threat due to mental health reasons the opportunity of recourse in court before guns are confiscated. This hopeful provision was packaged with other amendments that loosened the gun sale and ownership restrictions incumbent to the law. It is distressing that this law-which will not pass the Assembly-continues to couple mental health with predictive violence and gun restrictions.

Senate OKs SAFE Act Rollback
Times Union; Casey Seiler, 6/8/2015

The state Senate on Monday approved a bill that would amend several elements of the SAFE Act gun control act - including changes long sought by conservatives who despise the 2013 legislation, which was rushed through by Gov. Andrew Cuomo<http://www.timesunion.com/search/?action=search&channel=news&inlineLink=1&searchindex=gsa&query=%22Andrew+Cuomo%22> a month after the mass killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School<http://www.timesunion.com/search/?action=search&channel=news&inlineLink=1&searchindex=gsa&query=%22Sandy+Hook+Elementary+School%22> in Newtown, Conn.
Generally following party lines, the measure passed 35-26.
Among its provisions, the bill would scrap the requirement that all ammunition purchases be subject to a real-time background check. That provision of the original legislation has not been put in place because the State Police<http://www.timesunion.com/search/?action=search&channel=news&inlineLink=1&searchindex=gsa&query=%22State+Police%22> have yet to develop an online system to carry it out.
The bill would make it legal for the firearms classified as assault weapons by the SAFE Act to be handed down to an "immediate family member" in the event of the owner's death. Under current law, those weapons can't be transferred to another owner.
The Senate bill would also make all pistol permit applications exempt from disclosure under state Freedom of Information Law. The applications are currently defined as a public record subject to FOIL, though the SAFE Act created an "opt-out" provision for those who can demonstrate that release of their data - including name and address of the gun owner - would place them at risk of harassment.
The legislation would, however, allow for the release of the raw number of persons registered on the county level. For more than a year, the State Police have stonewalled numerous requests for information about the number of people who have registered newly defined assault weapons. A recent state Supreme Court<http://www.timesunion.com/search/?action=search&channel=news&inlineLink=1&searchindex=gsa&query=%22Supreme+Court%22> ruling required the State Police to release that information to a Rochester-area radio host, though the state is currently weighing whether to appeal that decision.
The bill would also require that those deemed to be a threat due to mental health issues would first be informed of that determination and given a chance to seek court redress before their weapons are confiscated. And most of the administration of the SAFE Act's data would be shifted from the State Police to the Department of Criminal Justice Services<http://www.timesunion.com/search/?action=search&channel=news&inlineLink=1&searchindex=gsa&query=%22Criminal+Justice+Services%22>.
Amendment of the SAFE Act became a flashpoint in the leadership struggle between Senate GOP<http://www.timesunion.com/search/?action=search&channel=news&inlineLink=1&searchindex=gsa&query=%22Senate+GOP%22> members John DeFrancisco<http://www.timesunion.com/search/?action=search&channel=news&inlineLink=1&searchindex=gsa&query=%22John+DeFrancisco%22> of Syracuse, who voted against the SAFE Act, and Long Island's John Flanagan<http://www.timesunion.com/search/?action=search&channel=news&inlineLink=1&searchindex=gsa&query=%22John+Flanagan%22>, who voted along with then-leader Dean Skelos<http://www.timesunion.com/search/?action=search&channel=news&inlineLink=1&searchindex=gsa&query=%22Dean+Skelos%22> in favor of the bill.
In the month since that contest was decided in Flanagan's favor, he has expressed a willingness to revisit the gun control law.
The amending bill's prospects in the Democrat-controlled Assembly are bleak. It's also highly unlikely Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has described the SAFE Act as one of the signal progressive achievements of his first term, would be willing to sign it.

http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Senate-OKs-SAFE-Act-rollback-6315004.php
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