Local Reaction Split on New NY Gun Law

1/16/2013 (Updated 6:55:05 PM)

(Source: Jason Weinstein)

This gun shelf in the Timber Creek Sportsman Shop in Endwell is nearly empty. Store owner Chuck Sherwood says recent efforts to expand gun control which culminated in Governor Cuomo's signing of the NY SAFE Act yesterday has caused business to boom. Despite that, Sherwood is no fan of the new law.

"It's not taking the illegal guns and the problem off the street. This is just a feel-good measure and I think our government and all the people who voted for it in the state of New York are wrong," said Chuck Sherwood, owner of the Timber Creek Sportsman Shop.

Advocates who deal with violent crimes have higher hopes for the new law.

"I don't think it's going to be a complete safeguard by any means but I feel it's a step in the right direction. I felt like we had to do something," said Raini Baudendistel, Executive Director of the Crime Victims Assistance Center.

The law requires stores that sells ammunition to register with the state, run background checks on buyers of bullets and keep an electronic database of bullet sales. It also establishes a state registry for all private sales, with a background check done through a licensed dealer for a fee, excluding sales to immediate relatives.

The law also requires a therapist who believes a mental health patient made a credible threat to use a gun illegally to report the threat to authorities. A patient's gun could be taken from him or her.

"We're making criminals and imposing a lot of restrictions on law-abiding citizens," said Assemblyman Clifford Crouch, R-Guilford.

"It's going to hurt a lot of local sportsmen, it's going to hurt a lot of gunowners and it's going to hurt a lot of local businesses," said Sherwood.

"I certainly would like to think from a broad scope that there's going to be less mass violence. We experienced some of that here in Binghamton and hopefully these gun laws will help to ensure nothing like that happens again," said Baudendistel.

****In Broome County, Jason Weinstein, Fox 40 HD News****

VIEW VIDEO