Editor's Note: The following letter was sent to The Spotlight Thursday, March 6, by Town Supervisor John Clarkson and Councilmen Jeffrey Kuhn, Kyle Kotary and William Reinhardt on the proposal to enact a town resolution in favor of the state's new gun regulations. The board members are no longer pursuing the resolution, as they now feel it would take away from town discussions at the local level.
Editor, The Spotlight:
In the wake of the tragedies in Newtown, Connecticut and Webster, New York late last year, on January 15, 2013, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law the New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act – commonly known as the NY SAFE Act. The Act includes common sense provisions designed to reduce the epidemic of gun violence in our society, including: a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines; universal background checks for gun and ammunition sales; measures to keep guns out of the hands of convicted felons and the dangerously mentally ill; and stricter criminal penalties for gun crimes, including the “Webster Provision,” which increases the penalty for shooting first responders to life in prison without parole.
The reasonable measures of the SAFE Act enjoy broad public support. According to a Siena Research poll released last month, two thirds of New Yorkers support the SAFE Act. And more than 70% of the members of each house of the state legislature voted in favor of the Act, including Bethlehem representatives Senator Neil Breslin and Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy.
We do not believe that the SAFE Act will prevent responsible ownership and use of firearms by Bethlehem residents for self-defense, hunting, or recreation. The Supreme Court has held that the right to keep and bear arms is not unlimited, and recent federal court decisions have also held that bans on assault weapons and large capacity magazines do not violate the Second Amendment.
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Comments
keithwiggand 2 months, 1 week ago
Mr. Clarkson, Board Members Kotary, Kuhn, and Reinhardt:
Why are you attempting to circumvent the public's input on the NY SAFE ACT resolution? You actually want us to believe that by setting aside the actual presentation of an official resolution and omitting it from the official agenda that you will avoid public comment on the issue? I think not.
Your letter IS a public resolution, signed by a quorum of the Board. Therefore, it IS part of the Public Record.
There are THOUSANDS of legal gun owners and collectors in YOUR town. They are doctors, lawyers, police officers, politicians, mechanics, bus drivers, accountants, and some simple, plain folks. They are willing to defend their position in favor of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, and the NY SAFE ACT has made criminals out of many of them.
Most, if not all, of these gun owners will NOT register their weapons. Most likely this law, or major portions of it, will be declared unconstitutional by the courts. You have stepped into a hole that you are not going to be able to dig yourselves out of - you have chosen to take on "The People" on one of their most sacred of constitutional rights - all for the purpose of making political points with King Cuomo..
Are you going to send out Bethlehem Police officers to enforce the law? Are you going to accept responsibility for any problems that crop up as a result? It seems weapon confiscation is the next thing on your agenda.
I think you have unnecessarily provoked conflict among our population by flaunting your 'letter' and your opinions in "The Spotlight".
Although you have tried to hide behind this 'letter', you WILL be hearing from the People on this issue, if not at your Board meeting, most certainly at the polling place....
I think you may have poked a hornet's nest with a stick....
Keith A. Wiggand, Delmar
DJHarris 2 months, 1 week ago
I posted a comment before Mr. Wiggand. It was appropriate and not out of line. Why was it deleted????????????? Nice censoring!!!!!!! maybe next comment I can write about tulips and that will stay in.
Charles Wiff 2 months, 1 week ago
Our system shows this to be the only comment to have originated from this account. No comments were blocked on this story. If you are able to resubmit the comment we'll get it up.
Longscout 2 months ago
Owing to the passage into law of the so-called NY-SAFE Act, it is now both possible and the immediate peril in New York to be arrested and charged with a felony ranked greater than that for rape by sitting at home in your easy chair without having a) exhibited a behavior or b) lifted a finger to offend -- another human being, any living thing, property or a reputation.
The members of the Town Board well ought to have arrived at that conclusion on their own a) because of the nature of the language of the bill, b) because of the rush to pass the law on an emergency status when the dates of effective penalties arrive long after passage of the bill, and c) because the reprehensible behavior of those elected officials who voted for the bill. They were allowed no opportunity to read the bill and their ignorance was imposed by a shakily conjoined NY Senate leadership and the self-satisfied Assembly majority that is unassailable by the loyal opposition. Does our Town Board like our Governor and elected members of the Legislature forget for whom they work, whom they are to serve, and within which constraints they are to do so?
Do fellow-citizens who now think they approve the NY-SAFE Act fail to understand that what they own, what they do, what they collect, and the bonding activities of their own families might likewise soon become fodder for the "There ought to be a law!" and "It's for the children!" caterwauling? That what they love will be re-scripted and described in significantly slanted language, by rapid fire photo-op video presented to defame them?
The language and reportage to which we in the Capital District and across New York have been served by our major newspapers and television stations skips across the solid citizen status and other quality surface of the majority of NY gun owners -- peaceable, productive citizens innocent of any crime...until the Governor went on a nighttime bargaining crusade and brought home the holy grail of the gun banning crowd for New York.
Do my fellow-citizens and the members of the Town Board think that they are not endangered by what endangers gun owners? In the beginning was the Word and the Word was made law no matter how incompetently written, no matter the damage to individuals, to the tax base, or to those innocently passing through New York -- no matter how imperiled is our future because self-interested persons in pursuit of selfish ends would jeopardize just one population -- honest, legal gun owners -- and make them felons.
"After all...it is only one small group," I hear those conspirators mumbling. And so, now, let us end with one question: "Who's next?"
van 1 month, 2 weeks ago
Don't these idiots realize that robust public debate is supposed to take place before a major piece of legislation, not after it is rammed down our thoats. Four Flacks sucking up to the Prince with hopes of eventual appointment to a high paying non-productive state job!
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