“Come Tuesday, owners of assault weapons in New York will be faced with a choice: Register those firearms with the state or potentially face a felony charge.” That’s the blunt, entirely accurate assessment of usatoday.com of the situation facing New York gun owners who possess unregistered “assault weapons” who are refusing to abide by the mandate created by the dead-of-the-night SAFE Act. And just in case you didn’t get the message . . .
“The consequences of ignoring the deadline are severe,” the McPaper repeats. Felony as in jail. As in the permanent loss of gun rights (such as they are in the Empire State).
As you can see from these images (click here for a video of a registration form burning session), some NY “assault weapon” owners are sending a clear message to Governor Cuomo, the State legislature and the police: FOAD.
How many? “It’s not known how many assault weapons there are in New York, and the state has refused to say how many people have registered.” In other words, thousands. Maybe even tens of thousands. Maybe more.
[The president of the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Tom] King said he believes the number [of weapons covered by SAFE Act registration requirements] may be between 1 million and 2 million. [The president of the Shooters Committee on Political Education Stephen] Aldstadt said “at least hundreds of thousands.” But both cautioned that their calculations were strictly guesses based on conversations with their members.
The only question: will Governor Cuomo follow Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy’s lead and ignore the law, enforcement-wise, or will Cuomo send the State Troopers on a few high-profile raids? There’s no telling what will happen if he does, but the chances are we’re going to find out.