NY Post Article: Hit us with your best shot Andy

[jusputtn]

From: Jacob J. Rieper, Vice President of Legislative & Political Affairs <[email protected]>

Date: Mon, Jan 21, 2013 at 6:35 AM

Subject: [NYSRPA-alert] Hit us with your best shot, Andy!

To: NYSRPA-alert <[email protected]>

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/hit_us_with_your_best_shot_andy_5rxZg0gYBJJhkLBtiTPMfJ

Assault-rifle owners statewide are organizing a

mass boycott of Gov. Cuomo’s new law mandating

they register their weapons, daring officials to

“come and take it away,” The Post has learned.

Gun-range owners and gun-rights advocates are

encouraging hundreds of thousands of owners to

defy the law, saying it’d be the largest act of

civil disobedience in state history.

“I’ve heard from hundreds of people that they’re

prepared to defy the law, and that number will be

magnified by the thousands, by the tens of

thousands, when the registration deadline

comes,’’ said Brian Olesen, president of the

American Shooters Supply, one of the largest gun dealers in the state.

Officials estimate at least 1 million

semiautomatic rifles are owned in the state, sources said.

And come April 15, 2014 — when Cuomo is expected

to be running for re-election — they all have to

be registered with the State Police.

But because the rifles have been legal but

unregistered until now, authorities don’t know

who has them or where they are located.

State officials will be nervously watching the

registration figures to see how many gun owners comply, sources said.

“I believe you will have people stepping forward,

saying, ‘Here I am. See? I have what you call an

assault rifle. Now come and take it away,’ ’’

said a gun-rights activist and boycott organizer.

That’s exactly what state officials are worried about.

“Many of these assault-rifle owners aren’t going

to register; we realize that,’’ said a

Cuomo-administration source who added that

officials expect “widespread violations’’ of the

new law. Owners who refuse to register could face

a class-A misdemeanor — punishable by up to a year in prison.

And an owner’s weapon could also be confiscated,

which could be worth several thousands of dollars.

National Rifle Association President David Keene

told The Post yesterday that he wasn’t surprised by the planned boycott.

“While we don’t get involved in campaigns to

resist the law, I will say this: Historic

experience here and in Canada shows that when you

try to force gun owners into a registration and

licensing system, there’s usually mass opposition

and mass noncompliance,” he said. “I think it’s

going to be very difficult for the governor to

get mass compliance with this new law.”

Leaders of some of the state’s 300 gun clubs, gun

dealers and Second Amendment organizations are

organizing the boycott — and the heaviest

interest is in Suffolk County, the Capital

District and the Buffalo region, sources said.

The organizers point to a little-known guarantee

of gun ownership contained in New York’s own

“Civil Rights Law,” which was ratified the same year as the Constitution .

The state statute says the right to keep and bear

arms “cannot be infringed” — stronger than the

Second Amendment, which says it “shall not be infringed.’’

“They’re saying, ‘F--- the governor! F--- Cuomo!

We’re not going to register our guns,’ and I

think they’re serious. People are not going to do

it. People are going to resist,’’ said State

Rifle and Pistol Association President Tom King,

a member of the NRA board of directors. “They’re

taking one of our guaranteed civil rights, and they’re taking it away.’’

Olesen said he’ll soon launch a nonprofit, to be

called Save the Second Amendment Foundation,’ to fight the new law.

[ants]

No surprise. Am sure that a lot of people won't register. If I had what King Cuomo considered an "assault weapon", I wouldn't .

[wmig2]

I agree. There are more pressing issues like the economy.

[josephmrtn]

i wouldnt if i had one....

[Felonious_Monk]

Fortunately I had to get rid of all my wordly possessions upon assuming the monk life.

[josephmrtn]

The FELONIOUS monk life.... right LOL

[Felonious_Monk]

LOL.

shhhhh.

You'll give me away.

[josephmrtn]

LOL dont worry ur safe w me....

Never talk when you can whisper

Never whisper when you can wave

Never wave when you can wink...... i think thats how it goes...