Erie County Legislature Majority Leader Joseph Lorigo announces that the resolution he cosponsored supporting the repeal of the SAFE Act in Upstate New York was approved at the Thursday, March 9, 2017 session. The resolution supports a Senate bill that calls for the repeal of the unnecessary regulations placed on lawful gun owners that accomplish nothing but creating bureaucratic, expensive hoops to jump through.

“The New York State Legislature passed the SAFE Act under cover of night, and without proper procedure.  It was passed with no public input, and insufficient time for legislators to read and understand it.  Since its passage, it has been an undue burden on New York State residents, and county clerks across the State.  The better move would have been to enforce the gun laws that already existed, rather than create overly burdensome regulations in order to utilize a clever acronym,” said Majority Leader Lorigo.

The state bill is sponsored by Senator Rob Ortt and calls for the repeal of provisions of the SAFE Act in areas outside of New York City. Senators Patrick Gallivan and Michael Ranzenhofer are cosponsors. The  legislation repeals the five-year recertification requirement for pistol permits; fully repeals the ammunition database; repeals the statewide license and record database, which will save taxpayers millions of dollars; and authorizes the transfer of firearms, rifles and shotguns to family members as part of an estate. The bill keeps in place the necessary laws against unlawful use of firearms.

The county’s resolution was sent to state officials requesting that the Senate, Assembly and Governor will approve of the repeal.