Ortt sponsors legislation to limit SAFE Act to NYC, Long Island
File photo by Tom Rivers: State Sen. Robert Ortt is pictured during a gun rights’ rally on Sept. 8, 2014 in Albion before he was elected to the State Senate. That rally was attended by 200 people.
State Sen. Robert Ortt, a vocal critic of the SAFE Act during his first term as a state legislator, has proposed legislation limiting the gun control measure to New York City, Long Island, and Westchester County.
Ortt, R-North Tonawanda, is sponsor of legislation introduced on Jan. 5 that would limit the controversial SAFE Act to Suffolk, Nassau, Kings, Queens, Richmond, New York, Bronx and Westchester counties.
The SAFE Act was passed on January 2013, a month after a deadly shooting at a Connecticut elementary school.
The SAFE Act broadened the definition of banned assault weapons, put restrictions on the guns’ re-sale and required gun owners to register the weapons with the state.
Mental health professionals, under the SAFE Act, also needed to notify authorities if they believed patients had a chance of harming themselves or others.
Ortt has called the SAFE Act, “a terrible piece of legislation passed in the dead of the night without proper public or even legislative input.”
The SAFE Act has strong support downstate but remains unpopular upstate.
Ortt says the legislation is “unconstitutional.” It was upheld, however, by a Federal Appeals Court which ruled in October 2015 the SAFE Act doesn’t infringe on the Second Amendment. (The court did rule one provision of the SAFE Act, which limited magazines to seven bullets when they held 10 rounds, was invalid.)
Gov. Andrew Cuomo pushed for the SAFE Act, saying it respects the Second Amendment but keeps gun from criminals and the “dangerously mental ill.”
SAFE Act opponents, including Ortt, say the legislation hasn’t protected New Yorkers and “has turned law-abiding citizens into criminals.”
To see the bill sponsored by Ortt, click here.
