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CORRECTION TO ON-AIR REPORT: Assault weapons need to be registered with New York State Police by April 15, 2014 (video above states the date as April 15, 2013)

January 29, 2013
Ithaca (WENY) - New York's new gun control Law, the SAFE Act can be a little confusing for gun owners across the state. That's why State police representatives are trying to explain it for people who might have questions. Although State Police were in Ithaca to talk about the SAFE Act, it seemed the majority of the people in the audience came to protest the new law. Mayor Svante Myrick was on hand to welcome the representatives from Albany.
   “I think hosting an information session like this is extremely important to get the information out. Under normal circumstances something like this ideally would happen before the law passed but its good to get it in now too,” says Myrick. |
     Usually questions like, 'If I own an assault rifle do I have to give it up?' and 'When do I need to register?' are what comes out of these meetings. For the record, the answer is if you own an assault rifle it won't be taken away but you need to register it by April 15, 2014. But the panel of experts were facing questions like this
     “My question to you is, because I cant ask why, or I can't ask what, I can't ask who, my question to you is, when are you going to deem this New York SAFE Act unlawful and unconstitutional?”
     Gun owners in Tuesday night's meeting were still upset about the law but their words fell on deaf ears.
      “Now as a state police member we didn't have a hand at passing the law, we're not legislators and its not our law, but its going to be incumbent of us in a lot of ways to enforce the law so we want the people to know what the law is about,” says State Police Deputy Superintendent Kevin Gagan.
     The state police have set up a phone number 1-855-LAWGUNS and a web site http://www.nysafeact.com/ for anybody with specific questions about the SAFE Act.