Look out New York Guns and Ammo owners your state is after you AGAIN!
A proposed Albany County law that would require gun shops to register ammunition sales � a measure that has created a firestorm � is being reviewed for its constitutionality.
Sponsored by Legislators Phil Steck of Colonie, and Wanda Willingham and Doug Bullock, both of Albany, all Democrats, the measure would regulate the storage, possession and sale of ammunition in the county. It would also require dealers to record each ammo sale and the caliber, make, model, manufacturer’s name and serial number of the firearm for which the purchase was made.
Introduced at the March meeting of the County Legislature, the proposal, called Local Law A, was sent to the Law Committee for review. Two weeks later, committee Chairman Bryan Clenahan sent the proposed local law to County Attorney Craig Denning for a ruling on its constitutionality.
Steck, who is an attorney, said he believes Local Law A will pass constitutional muster. Tom King, president of the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association and an NRA board member, disagrees, calling the measure “an affront to every legal and lawful gun owner in Albany County.”
King said “over the course of many years, the Supreme Court and many other courts have said it is illegal for authorities to keep lists of guns that are sold to individual people, and that’s what this is going to do � create a list, a de facto registration by making the gun dealer keep a list of the type of guns and caliber they are buying ammunition for. The courts have said it’s unconstitutional, it violates privacy laws.”
Last month, at the public forum before the start of the legislature meeting, King was among many gun advocates who showed up to speak.
If approved, the law “could push the largest gun dealer in New York state out of Albany County,” King suggested. He was referring to B&J Guns on Central Avenue in Colonie, which is owned and operated by Brian Olesen. It is one of several gun shops Olesen runs in the Capital Region and the only one in Albany County.
Steck referred to a 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court decision last June that struck down a gun ban in the District of Columbia and held that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to own a gun. Steck said the proposed local law is in line with that ruling.
New York has had handgun control laws on the books since 1965, the legislator said, and he specifically referred to a section of state law that makes it unlawful for any firearms dealer to sell ammunition for use in a handgun to someone not authorized to possess the handgun. Violating that section of the law constitutes a Class B misdemeanor.
The local law is an “enforcement mechanism” that would require people to display gun licenses. “Quite frankly, I never expected it to generate this type of controversy,” the lawmaker said. On the other hand, no one has told him the law, which he labeled as “mild,” is unnecessary because gun shops are already checking who they sell ammunition to, he said. While the state penal law doesn’t require a pistol license be shown, “in the end isn’t it easier that they just show their licenses?” Steck said.
