| On June 22, 2000, New York State adopted a law called S8234 that mirrored provisions of the law commonly known as the "federal assault weapons ban". In passing S8234, New York State hoped that they would be increasing public safety, however in practice, the law has not demonstrated any increase in public safety and it's definition of what constitutes an assault weapon is not based on any data that shows the features that define assault weapons make them more deadly or dangerous to the public than any other firearm. The section of S8234 that pertains to assault weapons should be withdrawn because it has demonstrated no increase in public safety as assault weapons are used in a trivial amount of crime and it arbitrarily restricts firearm consumers and at the same time needlessly exposes them to legal consequences if they are found in violation of the law. |
