Jon Campbell

Gannett

1%2C155 charges for felony possession of an illegal firearm have been filed

Vast majority of charges came in New York City

Gun groups challenge law%27s constitutionality

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Of the 552 laws approved by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2013, none shifted the state's discourse more dramatically than the first one he signed.

This week marks one year since the Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act, or SAFE Act, was quickly passed by the state Legislature and signed by Cuomo on Jan. 15.

The wide-ranging legislative package made national headlines and gave New York the strictest gun laws in the country just weeks after the school massacre in Newtown, Conn. But it also sparked a statewide battle with gun-rights activists and conservatives that has spilled into the courtroom and is poised to help shape the 2014 election cycle, particularly in upstate New York.

Since the major provisions of the law took effect in March, a total of 1,291 charges had been issued under the SAFE Act through Dec. 17, according to the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. Of those, 1,155 were for felony possession of an illegal firearm, which had been a misdemeanor prior to the new gun laws.

Cuomo on Monday said the charges levied thus far speak to the positive impact of the law.

The SAFE Act "made the penalty for illegal guns much, much higher, which is something that the gun owners were arguing for for a long time," Cuomo said. "The gun owners' argument is that it's not the legal owners, it's the illegal gun owners."

The SAFE Act statistics show the vast majority of charges — a total of 1,078 — came in New York City.

A total of 89 percent of the charges statewide came at the time of arraignment, not at the arrest, according to DCJS. A high rate of arraignment charges is not unusual for a major new law because of the unfamiliarity with it at the time of arrest, according to state and local officials. But some conservative sheriffs have vowed not to charge people under some SAFE Act provisions.

In the Hudson Valley, Westchester County had 13 charges under the new law, while Putnam had two and Rockland had just one.

Leah Gunn Barrett, executive director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, said there is "ample evidence" that strong laws reduce death and injury from guns. New York has the fourth-lowest rate of gun deaths in the country, she said.

Crimes then and now

Gun-rights groups say the statistics show a different story.

The vast majority of the SAFE Act charges in 2013 "were crimes last year and they're crimes now," said Tom King, president of the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association.

He said various other portions of the law — including a ban on purchasing rifles with certain assault-weapon features and a limit on the number of bullets loaded in a magazine — are arbitrary and difficult to enforce.

Comparing gun crimes between 2013 and 2012 in New York can be difficult, since the SAFE Act carved out the new felony crime for illegal firearm possession. Prior to the new law, firearms were lumped in with other weapons such as knives, daggers and stun guns for a misdemeanor charge — fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

In 2012, 19,089 misdemeanor weapons charges were filed, though it's not clear how many of those were specifically for firearms, according to DCJS. Last year, a total of 18,906 misdemeanor weapons and felony firearms charges had been filed through Dec. 17.

King's organization is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the SAFE Act, which charges that portions of the act, including the stricter ban on assault weapons, violate the Second Amendment.

A federal judge in Buffalo on Dec. 31 struck down the magazine limit, which prohibited New Yorkers from loading more than seven rounds in a magazine, regardless of whether it has a higher capacity. But the vast majority of the law was upheld as constitutional.

The state and the firearms group both intend to appeal the decision, and King says his group is willing to take the battle to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Enforcement questions

Critics of the SAFE Act haven't been limited to firearms organizations and Second Amendment boosters.

The state Sheriffs Association has raised numerous concerns with the law and say it's difficult to enforce, signing on to a "friend of the court" brief supporting the Rifle and Pistol Association lawsuit.

"We enforce the law, I want to make that clear," said Putnam County Sheriff Don Smith. "However, I think it's also important to say the SAFE Act was one of those laws that they wanted it bad, and I think they got it bad. The law is something that we took exception with when it was passed in the dead of night because a lot of the provisions in the law did not make sense."

The state Association of County Clerks has also flagged several issues, particularly when it comes to a portion of the law that allowed pistol-permit holders to opt out of having their permit information made public.

The provision, which came after The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News, a Gannett Co. Inc publication, published a map online showing pistol-permit holders in Westchester and Rockland counties, brought on a flood of paperwork for county clerks, who were tasked with collecting the opt-out forms and filing them away. The forms came in by the thousands, with clerks then required to send them to a judge for approval.

Some counties, including Putnam and Rockland, have refused to turn over the names of those permit holders that didn't opt out, citing safety and privacy concerns. Putnam County has been sued by The Journal News for the records, while Rockland County Clerk Paul Piperato was warned recently by the state Committee on Open Government that he could be held personally liable if he didn't comply.

The County Clerks Association is asking lawmakers to make all pistol-permit information confidential, arguing that the current law makes filing duties unclear and puts clerks in an uncomfortable position.

Meanwhile, State Police have refused to release statistical information about the number of new pistol permits in New York or how many assault weapons have been registered under the gun-control law. The agency claims the information is not public because it is being used in an eventual statewide gun-registration database, which is kept private by the SAFE Act.

Campbell reports for the Gannett Albany (N.Y.) Bureau; contributing: Andrew Casler of The Ithaca (N.Y.) Journal; Joseph Spector of the Albany Bureau