Some gun owners have said they won’t do it, while others are removing features, such as pistol grips, from their semi-automatics.
By MICHAEL VIRTANEN
Associated Press
Albany, N.Y. — Many New York gun owners expect the April 15 deadline to register assault weapons under the state’s strict new law to be largely ignored.
“People are pretty much convinced once they get on this registration, the next time they’ll say they’ve got to turn them in,” said Stephen Aldstadt, president of the Shooters Committee on Political Education, who helped organize a protest at the Capitol last week against the law.
The state’s SAFE Act, spearheaded by Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo and passed in the wake of the 2012 school shooting in neighboring Connecticut, bans New York sales of semi-automatic weapons with detachable magazines and one military-style feature.
For an estimated 1 million older guns already owned by New Yorkers, including popular AR-15s, the law requires registration. State police have established simple online registrations but refuse to say how many they’ve received. Cuomo, when asked, said he didn’t know.