NY gun proponents expect to file suit against state within 10 days

Syracuse News – by Teri Weaver

Syracuse, N.Y. — The New York Pistol and Rifle Association, an arm of the National Rifle Association, is planning to file its lawsuit against the NY Safe Act within 10 days, the association’s president Tom King said today.

King said the group is also planning on asking the courts to stay the implementation of the law.

“We think we have a really good suit,” King said.

The news comes as 100 buses full of hunters, gun owners and Second Amendment advocates are expected to descend on Albany Thursday to protest New York’s newly enacted gun restrictions.

It’s unlikely that substantial portions of the law, the NY Safe Act, will be repealed or changed, lawmakers who oppose the legislation say.

But the speedy passage of the law in January just a month after the Newtown shootings left out the voices of gun owners who feel unfairly targeted by the act’s new requirements on magazine sizes, weapons bans and registration requirements, some gun owners say.

Their protests and impending legal challenges has support from local governments and politicians in Upstate, more rural areas of the state. Both Oswego and Madison counties are among those local legislatures that have passed resolutions asking the state to either repeal or rethink parts of the gun laws.

Some Onondaga County lawmakers are considering passing a similar resolution. There’s a public informational meeting on the issue at 6 p.m. March 4 in the county Legislature chamber at the Onondaga County Courthouse.

The issue has cost Gov. Andrew Cuomo some political capital. But Cuomo — the first governor in the nation to react to last year’s Newtown and Webster, N.Y. shootings with stricter gun laws — remains solidly popular in statewide polls.

NRA President David Keene is expected to speak at Thursday’s rally, which begins at noon outside the capitol at noon. Sen. Patty Ritchie, R-Oswegatchie, and Assemblyman Will Barclay, R-Pulaski, who both voted against the law, are expected to attend.

More than 200 people from Oswego and Onondaga County are riding buses to Albany.

(I’ll be on one of the buses. I’ll be writing about the bus trip and rally on syracuse.com throughout Thursday. You can follow the day’s events with the Twitter hashtag #nyguns.)

Overall, the protesters are coming from at least 25 counties and Long Island, according to the pistol and rifle association.

See how the Senate and Assembly voted.

The crowds are also planning to meeting with their local lawmakers. Stephen Wolwelko, president of the Onondaga Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs, is taking about a dozen people to meet with the county’s delegation, including: Barclay; Assemblymen Al Stirpe, D-Cicero; William Magnarelli, D-Syracuse; and Sam Roberts, D-Syracuse; and Sens. James Seward, R-Milford; John DeFrancisco, R-Syracuse; and David Valesky, D-Oneida.

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/02/thousands_expected_at_pro-gun.html

Sent to us by Sir David Andrew.