By Don Smith

The handgun license you obtained, oh those many years ago, with the recognition that it was valid for your lifetime has now been reduced to a FIVE [5] YEAR permit. NY State now requires “license holders to re-certify their status every five years”. That's right, you must now RENEW your pistol permit EVERY FIVE [5] YEARS or face revocation [permanent] of the license. 

All thanks to Mr. Cuomo and his so-called “S.A.F.E”. Act. This "Act" modified several laws in this state. One of them is the NY PENAL LAW that was amended to RESTRICT Y OUR RIGHTS. How you say? Part (b) was added to Section 10 of the Penal Law. It converted your once life-long pistol permit into a FIVE [5] YEAR permit with the swipe of Cuomo's pen. 

You are now required by law to provide the NY State Police with not only several pieces of your personal data but also an affirmation that you are not prohibited from possessing Y O U R O W N f i r e a r m s [HANDGUNS ONLY]. Better yet, the UNSAFE Act offers the opportunity to complete the form for RE-CERTIFICATION ONLINE at a State Police website. 

Let’s see if I have this right: I “certify” myself as NOT being prohibited from owning a handgun in NY State. But why must I report my recertification of myself, by myself, to NY State? Oh, I get it now!! The State wants a database of all handguns! Isn’t this tantamount to a registration of all handguns? History teaches us that registration leads to one thing, confiscation! 

Consider these statements: 

• Former President Clinton: “Only the police should have handguns.” 

• Illinois Rep Schakowsky: “...the Constitution of the United States which does not give the right for any individual to own a handgun...” 

• Retired NY Rep Owens: “We have to start with a ban on the manufacturing and import of handguns. From there we register the guns which are currently owned, and follow that with additional bans and acquisitions of handguns and rifles with no sporting purpose.” [Does “acquisitions” remind you of the word “confiscation” used by Gov. Cuomo and others?] 

• Nelson Shields, former Chair of The Brady Campaign: “Yes, I’m for an outright ban [on handg u n s a n d a m m u n i - tion]”....”We’ll take one step at a time, and the first is necessarily--given the political realitiesvery modest. We’ll have to start working again to strengthen the law, and then to strengthen the next law and again and again. Our ultimate goal, total control of handguns, is going to take time. The first problem is to slow down production and sales. Next is to get registration. The final problem is to make possession of all handguns and ammunition (with a few exceptions) totally illegal.” 

• The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence [www.csgv.org]: “We will never fully solve our nation’s horrific problem of gun violence unless we ban the manufacture and sale of handguns and semiautomatic assault weapons.”

 • American Civil Liberties Union [ACLU]: “We urge passage of federal legislation...to prohibit...the private ownership and possession of handguns.” 

• Michael Gardner, former President of NBC News: “There is no reason for anyone in this country...to buy, to own, to have, to use a handgun…” 

• Janet Reno, former U.S. Attorney General: “The most effective means of fighting crime in the United States is to outlaw the possession of any type of firearm by the civilian populace.” 

Remember, the goal of the State is to have as many people re-certify electronically as possible. SO OUR GOAL SHOULD BE TO HAVE THE FEWEST, OR NONE AT ALL, register online. We must ALL RE-CERTIFY on PAPER. Mail the form via CERTIFIED MAIL. This confirms it was both MAILED and RECEIVED. This allows you to comply with the law when you have to, but not before. 

It is being suggested as an attractive proposition that we mail the form at the last possible moment… January 29 or 30, 2018. But we need to research this further as Cuomo likes to change the rules after the game has started. 

Further research is also needed to determine if we are authorizing the State to access our HIPPA file. If so, then NYS has figured out a way to correct their violation of federal HIPPA law by having the citizen authorize the State’s invasion of privacy. 

Recall that on September 20, 2016, representatives of the NY State Police spoke to the Fall Conference of the New York State County Clerk’s Association and made this statement: "The responsibility of the permit holder will be fulfilled when the recertification form is submitted to the State Police. Thus, if a problem arose where recertification was delayed, but submitted before the deadline, licensee is still legal."