What’s in New York State’s gun law

Database expansion, private transfers and mental health

The confusion over what will or won’t constitute a criminal firearms offense come April 15 has left many gun owners feeling uneasy. But Ulster County District Attorney Holley Carnright said that he does not anticipate prosecuting otherwise law-abiding citizens for unwitting violations of the still vaguely defined new law.

“If a person has five armed felonies and they’re in possession of [newly illegal arms or magazines] we’re going to prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law,” said Carnright. “If you’re dealing with someone who’s never had any involvement with the law, if you’re a 60 year old crime victim, [police] will take those items away, but that’s not necessarily something we would prosecute.”

Along with new restrictions on guns and ammunition, the law also provides for a major expansion of the background check database. Currently, private transfers between individuals outside the confines of a gun shop — about 40% of sales — do not require a background check. Now, such sales will have to be conducted with help from a licensed dealer with access to a federal database of prohibited purchasers. The state, meanwhile will have to come up with its own database to track ammunition sales. The law also adds a new requirement that mental health providers and social workers report to the database anyone who they believe is a danger to themselves or others. It was a provision sought by conservatives who noted that the perpetrators of several high profile mass shootings had psychiatric histories that should have disqualified them from gun ownership.

But some mental health experts worry that the new rules will unfairly stigmatize an already marginalized population and deter people with serious psychiatric symptoms from seeking professional help. Ellen Pendegar, CEO of the Mental Health Association for Ulster County, said that she worried that the mentally ill would become easy scapegoats for a much larger and more complex “culture of violence” in American life. Pendegar said that multiple studies had shown that the mentally ill were no more likely to commit acts of violence than the general population.

“We’re more than willing to do our part, but we want to make sure it’s not out of proportion,” said Pendegar. “People want to think there’s an easy fix, that you can blame certain population and that’s just not the case.”

Challenging the NRA

While New Yorkers begin mapping out the contours of a new and vastly different gun regulation landscape, gun control proponents like Ercolino and Phil Jonas, who sits on the board of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, are already looking ahead to the looming battle over federal gun legislation. For years, Jonas said, lawmakers in both parties have been cowed by the perceived power of the National Rifle Association to make or break candidates in competitive districts. But Jonas said the impact of the recent mass shootings has opened the door for a national debate on control. The momentum, he said, had manifest in a flood of new donations, new members and new organizations to a gun control lobby that has long played the underdog to better financed pro-gun groups. Jonas said that key elements of the New York law, like universal background checks and a ban on military style rifles, and stiffer penalties for gun crimes were already popular with voters, including gun owners, nationwide. With the NY SAFE act as a starting point, he said, new federal gun regulations were within reach for the first time since 1994 when lawmakers passed the (since repealed) federal assault weapons ban.

“There’s a long history in this country of state’s leading the way on important issues, like slavery or women’s suffrage,” said Jonas. “New York has taken that first step.”