Spiking murder rates in New York City – up 19% over the same period last year – and a jump in felony assaults on the subway have critics of the SAFE (Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement) Act arguing that the two-year-old legislation is a failure.
“During the last election, Governor Cuomo ran political ads stating ‘The NY SAFE Act is saving lives’,” noted Tom King, president of the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association. “The results prove the exact opposite is happening. It is time for our elected officials to have an honest and open discussion on the SAFE Act and why states with less restrictive gun laws do not have these problems.”
WABC in New York recently reported that felony assaults in the subway in 2014 jumped 27%, from 78 to 99 reported.
According to the New York Times, there were 135 slayings through May. Of those, 98 involved firearms, up from 69 in 2013 and 2014. Some people have suggested that New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s tilt away from the stop-and-frisk tactics that had been credited with disarming a fair number of street criminals may be contributing to the mayhem as well.
Whatever the case, de Blasio does not enjoy widespread support from officers in the metropolitan police department.
In a press release, King asserted that taken together, “it should be blindingly obvious now that New York’s new gun control laws are not doing what advocates said they would.”
The SAFE Act was passed in 2013, and with not much input according to critics, in reaction to the December 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting in neighboring Connecticut. Championed by anti-gun Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the legislation has been a sore point for Empire State gunowners. Some New York sheriffs publicly stated they would not enforce the law, and some members of the state Senate have been pushing for major revisions.
