Free Republic

As his first month as police commissioner under Mayor de Blasio winds down, Bill Bratton is already facing some sobering news — a 33 percent spike in murders across the city. According to the latest statistics released Tuesday, there have been 28 homicides so far this year compared to 21 in the same ­period last year. That puts the city on course for at least one murder a day.

All EMS Wear Bulletproof Vests Due To Increased Crime In Area BELLPORT, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) – A Long Island volunteer emergency medical service worker was injured after the ambulance he was riding in was shot at. As WCBSs Sophia Hall reported, a bullet went through the back window of the South Country Ambulance as volunteers were responding to a call in Bellport Tuesday night. Broken glass sprayed through the back of the ambulance, officials said.

Link to the video of Aaron Weiss address the Dutchess County legislature in New York on the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.“You see, if it was really so courageous a bill, and it took so much courage to pass it, then why was it done in the middle of the night when no one could see it or read it? That’s not courage. That’s a mafia style sit-down to divvy up what’s good for the bosses.”

“Nearly 1,000 people have been charged under the NY Safe Act in the eight months since the tougher gun control law was passed, according to the state’s Division of Criminal Justice Services,” syracuse.com reports. “Nearly 90 percent were accused of a crime that pre-dates the new act – including having a sawed-off long gun or an unregistered pistol – but was elevated to a felony when the Safe Act went on the books Jan. 15. The arrests dealing with the more controversial portions of the Safe Act, including possession of a large capacity magazine or a newly defined ‘assault weapon,’...

The two sides of the issue are firmly entrenched. The New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act, or NY S.A.F.E. Act, was quickly approved by the State legislature in January following the shootings at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. Besides its new definitions on what constitutes a banned assault weapon, and limits on number of rounds of ammunition permitted in a weapon’s magazine, the law also targeted ammunition purchases by dealers and gun owners. Before it was even passed, gun owners, and others opposed to the law, banded together. Rallies in Albany, letters to state legislators and...

American Tactical Imports (ATI) is the latest gun manufacturing company to flee New York’s draconian gun laws for safer grounds, citing the state’s passage of the SAFE Act and Summerville, South Carolina’s proximity to the port-of-entry for several of their imported products. The move will bring more than 115 jobs to South Carolina where locals are supportive of the company’s move. ”The people of South Carolina have welcomed ATI with open arms and we are excited about making our new corporate home there,” said company president Tony DiChario. ATI will invest nearly $3 million in Summerville, a Charleston suburb.

A law is only as good as its enforcement, and a growing number of New York sheriffs are announcing that they don’t intend to enforce the SAFE gun legislation Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law in January, PoliceOne reported. Cuomo’s rush to make New York the first state to react in knee-jerk fashion to the tragic December shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., resulted in a highly-flawed, overly-broad law that restricts the rights of legal gun owners while doing little to address violence. The legislation limits magazine capacities to seven rounds, prohibits the sale of certain types...

Kahr Firearms Group announced Wednesday that it will relocate its corporate offices from New York to Pennsylvania, and blames New York’s Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act as reason why. “We’re looking for a more friendly environment for our business,” Frank Harris, Kahr’s vice president for sales and marketing, told the Associated Press. “Maybe we could have stayed here and built a plant, but the way the bill was passed left us feeling there were a lot of uncertainties going forward.” Kahr is the first gun company to announce that it will move out of New York. It’s relocating its...

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) -- A firearms manufacturer in New York, partially blaming the state's new gun control law, said Wednesday it's moving its corporate offices — and its plans for expansion — to Pennsylvania. Kahr Firearms Group of Pearl River is the first gunmaker to announce it's leaving because of the Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act, which was put into law after closed-door negotiations in January. It was the first law in the nation prompted by the killing of 20 first-graders and six educators in Newtown, Conn., in December. "We're looking for a more friendly environment for our...

New York is about to see millions of dollars in economic activity leave their state due to the tyrannical gun laws, known as the NY SAFE Act, that were signed into law earlier this year. Kahr Arms has decided to pick up and leave Rockland County, New York and head across the border to Pennsylvania. Kahr Arms specifically cites the unconstitutional SAFE Act as the reasons they are leaving. The Times Union reports: Business has been good for Rockland County-based Kahr Arms, so much so that it plans to expand with a new factory on more than 600 acres. The...

Albany, N.Y. — After the passage in January of tougher gun restrictions in New York, sheriffs across the state have joined a federal lawsuit challenging the legislation “to reinforce the sheriffs’ position that portions of the (legislation) need to be changed and have a potentially negative impact on law-abiding citizens,” said Ontario County Sheriff Philip Povero. The New York State Sheriffs' Association and five individual sheriffs have added their position to the record in the lawsuit filed by the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association regarding the New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement (SAFE) Act of 2013. The...

Three killed Sunday after three were killed Saturday. One of the wounded includes an 11-year-old girl who will never walk again.Violence surged like the mercury Sunday, with three more fatalities from gun violence — and eight others wounded in shootings — bringing the total number of bullet-riddled in the city to 25 in less than 48 hours. LINK

An upstate New York prosecutor told Human Events he will not go after an individual for a misdemeanor violation of the Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act, signed into law on Jan. 15, in an extraordinary two-minute-drill session of the state’s legislature. “As I do in all cases, I considered all of the circumstances surrounding the summons,” said Columbia County District Attorney Paul Czajka.“I declined to prosecute one particular offense,” he said. If the DA had moved forward, it would be one of the first attempts to bring a violator of the new law to trial.The incident in question took...

District Attorney Paul Czajka dropped a state SAFE Act charge Thursday in county district court against Hopewell Junction resident Gregory Dean Jr., who was the first person charged in the county under the controversal law since it was enacted last month. Czajka told Town Justice Jessica Byrne that he would not prosecute the SAFE act violation. “Although I believe that it is not for a district attorney to determine or make blanket policy,” Czajka told Byrne, he said he would “decline to prosecute the unlawful possession of ammunition feed devices.” “There are a lot of factors that go into a...

The sheriffs thought they were being summoned to the Capitol to discuss ideas for changes to New York's gun control law, the SAFE Act. Instead, Gov. Andrew Cuomo told them to keep quiet. (...) Cuomo invited its leaders to the Capitol last month, people briefed on the meeting said. The group included Sheriffs' Association Executive Director Peter Kehoe and Chemung County Sheriff Christopher Moss. "We didn't get a response (to the analysis) from him, but we could tell after the budget was passed that none of those recommendations were taken into consideration," Moss said. "When we got there, we never...

As we explained in our last activism update, the forces intent upon diminishing our rights have been emboldened by a recent series of horrific events. Most prominently, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Rather than be cowed by rapacious politicians, we should resist this encroachment upon our fundamental liberties. To that end, I’m urging my fellow New Yorkers-especially those living in Richmond County-to attend an important rally against Governor Andrew Cuomo and the legislature that rubber-stamped this egregious violation of our natural right to defend our lives, liberty, and property. The absurdity of this law was demonstrated most recently by...

Is N.Y.'s Gun Confiscation Scheme Tied to Larger Federal Plan? Written by Dave Bohon A report from TheBlaze.com alleges that the state of New York is using its recently enacted NY SAFE Act as justification to confiscate firearms from law-abiding citizens — specifically individuals who have been prescribed anti-anxiety medication. But some Second Amendment advocates allege the scheme is part of a larger federal gun control plot. According to the Blaze, on April 1 a legal gun owner in upstate New York, later identified by a Buffalo newspaper as 35-year-old David Lewis, “received an official notice from the state ordering...

Albany Police Officers Union, local 2841, “We respectfully demand that you do the right thing and repeal the law.” FROM: Albany Police Officers Union, local 2841, Council 82, AFSCME, AFI-CIO, P.O BOX 6567, ALBANY, NEW YORK 12206 (518) 438-9422 To: Andrew M. Cuomo / Dean G. Skelos / Neil D. Breslin / John T- McDonald III / Phil Steck / Sheldon Silver / Jeffrey D. Klein / Cecilia Tkaczyk / Patricia Fahy Note; see the formal list of people this letter went to at the bottom. April 15,2013 Honorable Ladies and Gentlemen: The Albany Police Officers Union condemns and opposes...

Syracuse, N.Y. -- The union representing New York State Police say they believe the state's stricter gun laws could put law enforcement officers at risk. In an email release on Monday, the New York State Troopers PBA said its 6,000-member group "holds widely shared concerns" about the NY Safe Act. Nonetheless, the union takes exception to some state lawmakers accusing the troopers of failing to enforce the law. "The individual members of this union did not write the terms of the bill nor vote on its passage," the release said. "We urge the citizens of New York state to remember...

AMHERST, N.Y. - A state lawmaker is calling for an investigation into how an Amherst man's guns were taken away by mistake. State Assemblyman Ray Walter says when he saw the news coverage of David Lewis' case, he knew immediately something was "seriously wrong." Walter wants some answers, when he meets face-to-face with the State Police Superintendent in Albany next Tuesday. Lewis said, "It's been very embarrassing. I feel like I've been let down, and my privacy's been invaded." Lewis was forced to turn in his seven handguns and stripped of his pistol permit. After State Police in Albany identified...