Protests and ‘assault rifle’ registration paperwork continue to be shredded in New York two days after the SAFE Act provision deadline. Owners of assault-style weapons were supposed to have registered their guns by Tuesday. But there is no way of knowing exactly how many of these weapons there are in the state.
Liberals want compliance
Leah Gunn Barrett, executive director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, said gun owners should be expected to follow the law.
“They can make all the noise they want, but the law is the law,” Barrett said.
Pete Tonery, a Hamlin resident who has followed the gun control debate closely, called refusing to register assault rifles “the height of hypocrisy.”
“Their common cry is that regulation infringes on the rights of law-abiding citizens,” Tonery said. “What they now advocate removes them from that category. After they commit a felony, (by not registering) they will be criminals.”
A Constitutional issue
Mr. Tonery would be correct in his statement, if not for a little thing called the Constitution. The protesters believe that this law will open the doors to tyranny, and that the government has no right to know what firearms or how many they have. So far, the 2nd Amendment is just one American right that the government believes needs regulation.
There are an estimated one million rifles now categorized as assault style in the state of New York and gun-rights advocates estimate compliance will be less than 10 percent.
According to the mandate, rifles that are not registered by the February 15th deadline can either be sold out of state, or modified to non-assault specifications. Some of these modifications include capping a threaded barrel and removing a pistol grip.
An estimated 70 opponents of the law gathered outside the Walter J. Mahoney State Office Building in downtown Buffalo late Tuesday afternoon to shred State Police registration forms for assault weapons, chants at the rally included “We will not comply” and “Cuomo’s got to go.” Some of the signs included: “Millions of Gun Owners Hurt No One Yesterday” and “You Won’t Get Gun Control By Disarming Law Abiding Citizens.”
One Sheriff not enforcing it
A bright spot in this gun grab madness is that some of the county Sheriff’s still plan on honoring the oath they swore to uphold the Constitution. In Erie County, Sheriff Timothy B. Howard says he will not force his deputies to enforce registration. He stated, “I am not encouraging them to do it. At the same time, their own consciences should be their guide. I am not forcing my conscience on them. That is a decision they should make.”
With the liberal states attempting to rewrite our Constitution, and law makers such as Dianne Feinstein still attempting to void the 2nd Amendment all together, it doesn’t take a genius to see that we as a free people are under attack from the elite. If we lose our 2nd Amendment rights, we have lost a cold war many of us did not even know was being waged.
Thomas Jefferson said, “If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so.”
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