Legislators are trying to make the already draconian New York SAFE Act even more absurd.
According to this story from thetruthaboutguns.com, lawmakers from Brooklyn announced two proposed amendments to the package of firearms laws would limit how much ammunition New York residents could buy at a time.
The law would only allow gun owners to purchase twice a gun’s capacity every 90 days. Since the SAFE Act already limits magazine capacity to 10 rounds, a gun owner wouldn’t be able to buy more than one 20-round box of ammo every three months. Theoretically, a person who owns a six-shot revolver would be limited to purchasing 12 rounds every 90 days.
This story from brooklyneagle.com says the legislation would also “prevent gun dealers from selling ammunition for a firearms to anyone not authorized to have such a weapon.”
Anyone who knows anything about guns knows there are a lot of reasons this wouldn’t work. First, as thetruthaboutguns.com points out, every single firearm possessed by a state resident would have to be cataloged and registered with information including it’s capacity for a gun shop to theoretically know which gun a person is purchasing ammunition for, and therefore how much to sell them. This would also mean that a person who doesn’t own a firearm wouldn’t be able to purchase ammunition.
Proponents of the legislation, including state Senator Roxanne Persaud and Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon, say the purpose of the legislation is to prevent terrorists from stockpiling ammunition.
“Limiting the quantity and duration between purchases of ammunition is one step in preventing someone with criminal intent from easily accessing large quantities of ammunition,” Persaud said in the story.
Earlier this year, New York suspended the ammunition registration portion of the SAFE Act because the required database was found to be unworkable and unaffordable to create. A similar system would be required to enforce this new amendment, should it ever pass.
The story also says: “Under the proposal, Section 270.00 of the New York State Penal Law would be amended to prevent gun dealers from selling ammunition for a firearm to anyone unauthorized to have such a weapon, regardless of the weapon type. Under the current code, only pistols and revolvers are specifically regulated.”
That’s not all. The new legislation ups the penalty for a violation to a Class E felony that carries a minimum of one year in prison, and up to four.
