Miss a deadline, lose your gun rights forever

Don’t ever let anyone get away with telling you no one wants to take your guns. The state of New York wants to:

The passage of New York’s so-called SAFE Act (“Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act of 2013”) drastically changed the landscape for lawful gun owners in the Empire State. Besides new restrictions on commonly owned semi-automatic rifles the state calls “assault weapons,” bans on magazines, and limits on the number of rounds that could be loaded into a gun, the Act imposed a requirement that handgun license holders be “recertified” every five years, with all licensees completing the initial recertification by January 31, 2018. The recertification form requires that the licensee disclose his or her “name, date of birth, gender, race, residential address, social security number, [and] firearms possessed by such license holder,” along with the listed identifying details (make, model, caliber, and serial number). (“Firearm” under the applicable New York law means a handgun or other gun of a size which may be concealed upon the person.)

A failure to recertify operates as an automatic revocation of the license. Possession of a “firearm” without a valid license is a criminal offense, and the revocation makes the person ineligible to apply for or renew a license. Once a license is revoked, state law mandates that every gun owned or possessed by the licensee be “surrendered” to a law enforcement agency. A New York State Police field guide on the SAFE Act, prepared by attorneys for the Division of State Police, unequivocally instructs officers that when “a licensee becomes ineligible to hold a pistol permit, the Safe Act requires the person to surrender all firearms to police, including all rifles and shotguns for which no license or registration is required.” (Emphasis in the original.)

Should the person fail to comply by turning in every gun, the SAFE Act (codified as NY Penal Law § 400.00(11)(c)) not only authorizes but requires that police officers confiscate such property: the guns “shall be removed and declared a nuisance and any police officer or peace officer acting pursuant to his or her special duties is authorized to remove any and all such weapons.”

Once the gun is deemed a “nuisance,” the owner loses the ability to reclaim or legally transfer it. State law directs that nuisance guns be destroyed without the need for a court order or other judicial proceedings, and courts have confirmed that a person has no “legitimate possessory interest” in firearms for which he or she has no license.

Even if you ignored the absurdity of having to get a license to exercise a specific enumerated right consider the following situation. If someone forgets about the renewal deadline, or are serious injured or sick and can’t meet the deadline, their specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms will be forever infringed by the state of New York.

This will come up at their trials.

Share

32 thoughts on “Miss a deadline, lose your gun rights forever

  1. This is a massive infringement of due process and it seems to be also a “takings clause” violation of the fifth amendment.

    • You mean the 5th Amendment that the Supreme Court stomped all over in the infamous Kelo decision?

      It would be an interesting challenge to try to find a Constitutional civil rights clause not violated wholesale by the courts. It’s possible the 3rd Amendment qualifies (though Neil Smith argues otherwise). But I’m hard pressed to think of any other example.

    • The ‘nuisance’ wording is specifically intended to address the takings issue. A nuisance has no value. In their view, they are being generous in not charging the gun owner for the expense of taking and disposing of the guns.

      Maybe if the guns were resold, the victim might have a taking claim. But if they just destroy the guns, not much chance of getting a fair judge to rule fairly.

      • A “taking” is a “taking”; what difference does it make once the Government takes the property?

        • If the property is of “no value” (think illegal recreation drugs like heroin or other “contraband”) then they can destroy it without compensation. The law declares your property to magically be of zero value once your license for it has expired.

  2. Why do these people follow this invalid law? Just because its a law does not mean you have to comply with it. I know all these fearful sheep are willing

    • Exactly. The state is asserting an authority it simply does not have. Anyone siding with the state’s false assumption of authority is therefore an outlaw, a criminal conspirator.

      Further, anyone complying with such “laws”, knowing the above, and that would include practically all of us, is lending at minimum a tacit approval to the violations.

      Whether you decide to give the bully what he wants or to punch him in the nose or do whatever else it takes put him straight, is a personal choice. Clearly, nearly all of us are guilty of bowing down to the conspiracy, and thereby strengthening and encouraging it.

      That conspiracy of evil feeds off of our substance. We do much more than subsidize it. It has no other form of sustenance, power or perceived authority than what we give it. Without our tolerance, support and obedience, they would be no more than common street thugs, prowling the dark allies looking to surprise the weak and unwary.

      Are we all weak? Are we all unwary? Or are we willing participants who’ve taken their prescribed place in the chain-of-command of corruption?

      A conspiracy of such magnitude requires material support. When the conspiracy is known, it also requires tolerance– those who see it for what it is must help it along by doing nothing. To catch the conspiracy and bring the perpetrators to justice involves catching those whose material support and knowing tolerance made it possible.

      And if we’ve turned away for years and for generations, while the corrupt live in opulence at our expense, who can blame those who utilize the power and that false authority which, through our inaction, distraction, or outright cowardice, we’ve given to them?

      Do you really want justice then? If so, now maybe you have a better idea of what you’re demanding.

  3. Not only is this an infringement of the 2nd Amendment rights, it is also a means by which the state can know (and update) who possesses what firearm which may lead to an EASY way to take the legally registered guns away. If person fails to ‘re-register’ their weapons for whatever reason, they become a felon and can no longer vote, not to mention being fined and jailed. I live in NY and had to ‘re-register’ my firearms. Why do I have this uneasy feeling of dread?

    • We keep using that word, but apparently we don’t know what it means. To infringe is to trespass at the outer edges, margin or penumbra (fringe). The word we’re looking for in this case is “violate”. When one violates one must of course infringe, but an infringement isn’t necessarily a violation (except when it comes to the second amendment, which prohibits any infringement).

      Thus when it comes to the second amendment, any “infringement”, even of the most ornamental nature, even at the outermost margins of the act or process of keeping and bearing arms, is a violation.

      It is a violation, furthermore, of “The Supreme Law of The Land”.

      You are under attack by an organized band of criminals, of the worst kind, who want you disarmed so as to increase their criminal enterprises without so much of that fear of justice that all criminals share.

    • Like many others who registered, I am waiting for the other shoe to drop. Sure Cuomo will think of an improved S.A.F.E. act to hit us with!

  4. The “re-certification” process also means that for the first time the state police now have a complete, on-line database of exactly who owns what (hand)guns- whereas in the past everything was on paper records sitting in file drawers at the county clerks office. So when the day comes that Gov. Cuomo decides confiscation is the only solution following the next mass shooting (as he has openly suggested in a radio interview) then all he has to do is direct the state police to begin knocking on doors.

    • If he (peckerhead Cuomo) directs the NY SP to knock on doors, and start confiscations, that’s it. That order will get LEOs hurt, or killed, by those law abiding citizens, who are forced to defend against a tyrannical state government. Once you give up your guns to these greasy little bastards, you are no longer a citizen, you are a subject, with no way to stop them from taking the rest of your rights, as they see fit.

      • When the N.Y. city council passed the Sullivan Act in 1911 to “…keep revolvers out of the hands of swarthy immigrants,” no one objected to any meaningful degree. When Mayor Lindsey required the registration of all semi-auto rifles in 1967, no one objected to any meaningful degree. When, in 1991, Mayor Dinkins followed that up by getting the City Council to outlaw and confiscate those guns, a few people squawked-but the guns were turned in. When Congress enacted the McLure-Volkmer Firearm Owner Protection Act in 1986 to ensure safe passage for those traveling through the Empire State and the state ignored it and arrested gun owners passing through, no one objected. When Mayor Giuliani enacted his “stop-and-frisk” policy, no one objected. When madman Cuomo enacted his magazine capacity limit, lots of people objected-but everyone complied. Now we are supposed to believe that N.Y. gun owners will start shooting L.E.O.’s who are tasked with seizing registered firearms. Ain’t going to happen, folks. They’ll turn them in.

        • Sounds a lot like Kristallnacht… For those who never learned about it, or have forgotten, It was the night the Nazis broke in and confiscated all the guns of the Jews.
          If you don’t remember your history, or perhaps never taught the “politically incorrect” information, look it up. The Nazis took the guns, and then took the Jews to concentration camps and slaughtered millions.

          “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
          — George Santayana

  5. Cuomo’s S.A.F.E. act is worthy of the laws Nazi Germany had in the 1930s.
    You have a pistol carry permit ‘good for life ” unless you commit a crime. Not good enough for Cuomo, he changes the law so you have to re register every five years. (register with the State police so he has a complete list of all guns in NY). Heaven help you if you screw up and miss a deadline. The police will confiscate your pistols and permit. THEN— they will take EVERY firearm you own, rifles, shotguns, even antique heirlooms with no way to recover them or get compensation. Unfortunately, our police will have to bear the burden of enforcement and there will be resistance.
    Even worse you will be a felon with all that entails, most notable, loss of voting rights. Think ahead to 2020!

  6. Seems to me that, as of Feb. 1st 2018, New York State police departments will have a LOT of doors to knock on. The rest of us will no doubt be watching with interest to see how that goes.

    I don’t live in New York. (Massachusetts is bad enough.) But I suspect a large number of NY gun owners have failed to register their guns… or failed to register all of them.

    Gov. Cuomo is also setting up a situation where some conservative can run for office in New York, and make a big splash, simply by promising to end this madness.

    On the other hand, we know that many States — including my own — are certainly watching carefully, because they’d love to emulate New York.

    We live in interesting times.

    • Last figures I saw, only 200,000 + out of 1.5 million permit holders have registered!

        • They still have until the end of January—–but——if tax payers are a guide—-won’t do anything until 1/31/18.
          Just Human nature!

  7. Pingback: SayUncle » In NY

  8. And here I thought California was the Liberal Looney Capitol of America. They are going to have to try harder since they are now #2.

    • That puts New Jersey in 3rd—–strict on anything guns—-try getting caught in a traffic stop with a box of ammo in the trunk and no gun owners card! I left Jersey when this stuff was getting started.
      Stupid thing is I moved to New York of all places. Wonder if NC is immune from this craziness?

  9. I had a pistol permit in upstate n.y. 15 years ago, on it was the make, cal. and s/n of the gun. It was a .22 Ruger which I’m sure exceeded the magazine limit. Its one reason I left n.y. s. never to return.

    • I lived in New York for about 6 months while working on a project for my employer. It was small enough and far enough away from NYC that it wasn’t bad. Lots of deer running around and not many people. Still wouldn’t want to live in NY state again.

  10. They still have until the end of January—–but——if tax payers are a guide—-won’t do anything until 1/31/18.
    Just Human nature!

  11. If I owned a gun, I would sooner MOVE, than give Big Brother Cuomo and the Police any sensitive, personal information like that!! A handgun is already registered in the database at the time of sale, as are regular firearms. That is good enough for me. Big Brother Cuomo doesn’t need to have the information, too!! If he gets a bug up his butt, and decides he wants a mass confiscation, I don’t want to be snug in my bed, and hear a pounding on the door by the Police!! This is why I would personally keep this information to myself, put my house up for sale, and get the H_LL out of Dodge!! Between Cuomo’s nose, and the high taxes, it’s not worth it to get a bite out of the Big Apple anymore!! The apple is rotten!!

  12. Watch those gun violence stats soar! If I were a homicidal sociopath I’d be on a bus to NY as we speak.

Comments are closed.