Complete Coverage: Gun Control

From Hardline The WBEN Politics Program (Sundays 10am-12 noon) A discussion of the week's gun votes with Jimmy Vieklind, Albany Times Union,  Erie Co. Conservative Party Chair Ralph Lorigo , and  Assy. Crystal Peoples-Stokes (D- Buffalo) & Sen. George Maziarz (R-Newfane)

"I made my trip up here because I believe we have full rights of owning guns that we should like to own and they shouldn't be taking our rights away from us because young people, like us, who are going to grow up and have families should have the right to protect their families in their own houses," said one protestor from Jamestown

READ MORE
 

Gov. Cuomo says he understands the passion of gun owners, but feels that the restrictions enacted in New York State are overwhelmingly popular, and even necessary.

  Hear his conversation with the New York Posts's Fred Dicker, on Albany's Talk 1300 WGJD

The National Rifle Association said the secretive negotiations and lightning-fast passage of New York's tough new gun control laws squelched the powerful gun lobby's ability to mount opposition.

The legislation was negotiated over the weekend, introduced on the first day of the 2013 legislative session and signed into law the next day.

"They did slide this through in the middle of the night," said Tom King, president of the New York Rifle & Pistol Association, the state's NRA affiliate. "There was no negotiation with any pro-gun group. Up until 10 o'clock in the evening of the day of the vote, they were telling me there was no agreement."     READ MORE 

NY Senator Mark Grisanti was one of a handful of Republicans, and the only one from WNY, to vote in favor of the Governor's new law.

 Gun activists accuse him of a flip-flop, but he says changes to similar, earlier gun restrictions ultimately gave him something he could support.

Do you or someone in your home own a gun? Yes ( 73% ) No ( 27% )

Americans overwhelmingly favor universal background checks on all potential gun buyers, one of the proposals President Barack Obama put forward as part of his plans to help curb gun violence, according to a CBS News/NY Times poll released Thursday.

Request Denied: County Clerk will Not Release Gun Permit Data to Buffalo News

" I will exhaust every legal avenue available to keep the records of registered gun owners private, because I believe such disclosure could endanger the life and safety of our citizens. As an elected official, that will always be my first priority."- Chris Jacobs, County Clerk
 

 The fate of the President's plan could ultimately hinge on a handful of moderate Democratic senators. Although they are unlikely to endorse the president's call for banning assault weapons, they might go along with other proposals, such as requiring universal background checks on gun purchases.
 

Pres. Obama, with Vice Pres. Biden, left, hugs eight-year-old letter writer Grant Fritz during a news conference on proposals to reduce gun violence. Pres  Obama and the Vice-President Biden were joined by law enforcement officials, lawmakers and children following the shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., last month.   (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

The president  is also ordering federal agencies to make "relevant data" available to the federal background check system and to remove barriers that might prevent states from providing information, particularly mental health data, for background checks.

(WBEN) A Western New York Attorney expects to have a class action lawsuit filed within the next three weeks, challenging New York State's new gun and ammo restrictions in federal court.

"What we want to do is make sure the rights of law abiding gun owners in New York State are protected, without regard to what their status is.,"says Attorney James Tresmond of Hamburg.

"We have people who are gun owners for 20, 30 years, law abiding folks who feel that their rights are being affected by this law. After we review it will will decide which way we are going to go to attack it but we will be looking at filing a lawsuit in federal district court within the next three or four weeks," Tresmond says .  HEAR MORE | How To Contact Tresmond | Read The Story

Exclusive WBEN Audio   Buffalo's Early News In- Depth: John Zach & Susan Rose With Stephen Aldtstadt, Shooters Committee on Public Education

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday signed into law the toughest gun control law in the nation, and the first since the Connecticut school shootings. The law includes a tougher assault-weapons ban and provisions to try to keep guns out of the hands of mentally ill people who make threats.

READ THE ENTIRE New York State gun restrictions law
 

As the debate continued in Albany on Tuesday, concerned gun owners gathered at places like the Buffalo Gun Center in Cheektowaga, rasing concerns about their future rights.

Chris Thiel of North Tonawanda has a pistol permit and belongs to a pistol league. He said he's been thinking about buying an AR-15.

"Say this goes through and another tragedy happens and in New York state," he said. "You've got to do more then? When does it end?"      READ MORE
 

Gun Permit Applications are up; News Seeks Database of Gun Permit Holders

The Buffalo News has requested access to the entire public database of pistol permit owners in Erie County, re-lighting an isssue that erupted recently when a suburban New York City newspaper published the names and addresses of gun owners in its readership area.

UPDATE: The News says it has asked for the information, but not to publish.

" The News seeks this information just as it has data of voter registration, criminal records, municipal salaries, property assessments and tax rates," wrote editor Stan Evans.

" One reason for seeking the information about gun permits is so that in the event of a gun related crime in the future, we would be able to report whether that individual has a legal hand gun," he said in a prepared statement.

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Obama was to announce the measures Wednesday at a White House event that will bring together law enforcement officials, lawmakers and children who wrote the president about gun violence following last month's shooting of 20 young students and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.

The broad package Obama will unveil will also include efforts to stop bullying and boost availability of mental health services.

But Congress would have to approve the bans on assault weapons and ammunition magazines holding more than 10 bullets, along with a requirement for universal background checks on gun buyers. Some gun control advocates worry that opposition from Republicans and conservative Democrats, as well as the National Rifle Association, will be too great to overcome.

"We're not going to get an outright ban," Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., said of limits on assault weapons. Still, McCarthy, a leading voice in Congress in favor of gun control, said she would keep pushing for a ban and hoped Obama would as well.

White House officials, seeking to avoid setting up the president for failure, have emphasized that no single measure - even an assault weapons ban - would solve a scourge of gun violence across the country. But without such a ban or other sweeping, congressionally-approved measures, it's unclear whether executive actions alone could make any noticeable difference.

"It is a simple fact that there are limits to what can be done within existing law," White House spokesman Jay Carney said Tuesday. "Congress has to act on the kinds of measures we've already mentioned because the power to do that is reserved by Congress."

 

Sen. Charles Schumer says requiring universal background checks is something that could pass Congress despite political opposition to gun control.
  Schumer, a New York Democrat, says he'd like to see an assault weapons ban pass, too. But he says passing gun control measures is not easy. READ MORE

Related Earlier Coverage:

Assembly Debates Gun Control

New York's Expanded Assault Weapon Ban Agreed To

Obama weighing executive action on guns

Pridgen's Hopes for Biden Report Findings