Categories: Opinion

Whoops! New NY Gun Law Forgot To Exempt Cops On High-Capacity Mags

There’s a reason why moving slow on legislation is good. If it’s too big, or you do it too fast, you often complicate the problem. New York has just passed the most stringent anti-gun laws on the books. Yes, government did something! However, as progressives crack open the champagne, they forgot to exempt law enforcement on the measure banning high-capacity magazines. Then every single cop in New York has essentially broken the law. The new law limits firearm magazines to seven-rounds in New York.

According to Jim Hoffer of ABC Eyewitness News, “as the statute is currently written, it does not exempt law enforcement officers. Nearly every law enforcement agency in the state carries handguns that have a 15 round capacity. A spokesman for the governor’s office called Eyewitness News to say, ‘We are still working out some details of the law and the exemption will be included, currently no police officer is in violation.”

Of course, it’s bad PR to say that cops are law breakers. Perhaps, this little kerfuffle could’ve been settled if the NY legislature didn’t go through hyperspace to push through this new anti-gun bill. Furthermore, in a time when we want to deal with mental health and firearms, you’re first instinct isn’t to scare people from treatment. Allahpundit of Hot Air, citing a piece in USA Today, wrote that:

Mental health experts say a new tougher New York state gun control law might interfere with treatment of potentially dangerous people and even discourage them from seeking help.

The law would require therapists, doctors, nurses and social workers to tell government authorities if they believe a patient is likely to harm himself or others. That could lead to revoking the patient’s gun permit and seizing any guns…

“The people who arguably most need to be in treatment and most need to feel free to talk about these disturbing impulses, may be the ones we make least likely to do so,” said the director of law, ethics and psychiatry at Columbia. “They will either simply not come, or not report the thoughts that they have.”

“If people with suicidal or homicidal impulses avoid treatment for fear of being reported in this way, they may be more likely to act on those impulses,” he said

[…]

That’s a solid result for gun control. The police are momentarily in limbo legally and the threat to the public might actually increase as would-be spree killers decide it’s now too risky to seek therapy. Get Cuomo’s office a video camera and a group of kids reading letters about gun control, stat.

Originally posted on PJ Tatler.

Matt Vespa

I'm a staunch Republican and a politics junkie who was recently the Executive Director for the Dauphin County Republican Committee in Harrisburg. Before that, I interned with the Republican Party of Pennsylvania in the summer of 2011 and Mary Pat Christie, First Lady of NJ, within the Office of the Governor of NJ in 2010. I was responsible for updating his personal contact list. My first political internship was with Tom Kean Jr's. U.S. Senate campaign in 2006.