As we reported when the New York’s SAFE Act was passed, the bill forgot to exempt police from magazine capacity limits. (That’s what happens when you rush a piece of legislation through the Assembly, give politicians twenty-minutes to read it before they vote and sign it into law under emergency provisions which circumvent the constitutionally-mandated three-day waiting period.) The Empire State’s seven-round mag cap limit goes into effect on April 15. And so Governor’s Cuomo’s mob must quickly fix the bill to allow law enforcement officers to carry more rounds than law-abiding taxpayers. And here’s another kicker, straight from the Joe Biden Diane Feinstein I Have No Idea WTF I’m Talking About School of Civilian Disarmament . . .
The [SAFE Act] toughened restrictions on military-style rifles and high-capacity semiautomatic handguns, but those restrictions will be changed so those types of weapons can be used on the sets of television shows and movies being shot in New York.
“We spend a lot of money in the state bringing movie production here, post production here. So obviously we would want to facilitate that,” Cuomo said.
Cuomo said the prop firearms used in films would probably not be classified as an assault weapon.
“But people want certainty and there’s no reason not to make a change like that,” the governor added. “Apparently, they have blanks or they have phony magazines or something.”
The newyork.cbslocal.com version of the AP story somehow forgot to include this little ditty [via nbcnews.com]
“Had they not rushed this bill through, this bill would never have become law,” said Assembly Republican leader Brian Kolb. “This opposition would have been mobilized … this bill would do nothing to prevent the tragedies.”
And so some 10,000 are due to descend on Albany today to raise their voices in the protest that they didn’t get the chance to express before. We’ve got a man there. Watch this space.