NY Senate Proposed Bill S9225
Per Subdivision 1 of section 265.00 of the NY penal law:
“Machine-gun" means any weapon…from which a number of shots or bullets may be rapidly or automatically discharged from a magazine with one continuous pull of the trigger...”
Sounds like the classic definition of an automatic weapon which is commonly referred to as a “machine gun”.
Under proposed NY Senate bill S9225, included the definition of a machine gun will now be “any convertible pistol that is equipped with a pistol converter. A "Pistol converter" means any device (that) enables the pistol to discharge a number of shots or bullets rapidly or automatically with one continuous pull of the trigger.”)
Hard to argue that if one makes a semi-automatic into an automatic, it becomes a “machine gun”. (For example, if you pour alcohol into a glass of 7 Up, it is no longer a soda and has become an alcoholic drink, so S9225 isn’t exactly forging new law – in that case.)
However, S9225 goes too far – way too far…
S9225 also says “Convertible pistol" means any semi-automatic pistol that can be converted into a machine-gun solely by the installation or attachment of a pistol converter.”
If you own a semi-automatic pistol that can potentially be converted into an automatic pistol (but is not converted and is still a semi-automatic weapon) you now have a “machine gun” under S9225 - even though it is not a machine gun.
(Using the previous example, if one has a glass of only 7 Up, is it an alcoholic drink because it can be converted into an alcoholic drink by adding another ingredient? Under the principle in S9225, the answer would be yes, it is an alcoholic drink.)
Apparently, there is already in existence a “Glock switch” that can convert Glock semi-automatics into automatics. So, if this became law, all Glocks - including those unaltered weapons that are currently owned - would become “Machine guns” and the owners would become felons.
At any point in the future, potentially, every semi-automatic pistol could be made illegal if some inventor finds a way to convert them to fire automatically.
This follows in the path of many democrat efforts to make people responsible for what other people do, in order to strike at the 2nd Amendment’s guaranteed rights.
SCOPE recently wrote about the lawsuit against an FFL (Vintage Firearms) where the owner is accused of selling an illegal “Assault Weapon” because the buyer later drilled out the fixed magazine of a legal weapon and converted it to an illegal weapon.
And of course, the left wants manufacturers to be responsible for lawfully sold weapons that are someday used illegally, even though the manufacturer obeyed all laws in making and selling the weapons.
What’s the penalty under S9225?
“Any person, dealer, firm, partnership, or corporation who disposes of or who transports or ships as merchandise a convertible pistol is guilty of a class D felony.”
Senator Zellnor Myrie of the 20th Senate District (Brooklyn) is the sponsor of this bill. Three guesses what political party he belongs to? (And if you guess wrong, you probably also wonder what religion the Pope belongs to.)
If you own a semi-automatic pistol – or you care about your 2nd Amendment rights – it might be worth your while to contact your state legislator and express your distaste / concern / outraged indignation over S9225. The right you save may be your own!
One closing thought:
The Crime Prevention Research Center has often pointed out that television crime shows seem to think criminals constantly use machine guns to commit crime. The reality is that the use of machine guns is so rare that it is statistically insignificant.
But Senator Myrie is hot-on-the-trail of anything insignificant.
Link to actual bill: Bill Search and Legislative Information | New York State Assembly
