State Senate Leaders Bar NY State Rifle & Pistol Assn. and Other Pro-Gun Groups From Microstamping Meeting

TROY, NY (06/03/2009)(readMedia)-- The State Senate is currently considering legislation that would require microstamping technology on all semi-automatic handguns sold in New York State. This technology would supposedly aid law enforcement by imprinting a firearm-specific code on cartridge cases as they are fired. The New York State Rifle & Pistol Association and other pro-Second Amendment groups have long opposed this legislation as impractical and an economic burden on firearms manufacturers and owners. The technology is easily defeated by the criminally-minded, and research conducted in California when it was considering similar legislation showed that the imprinted serial numbers were illegible about half of the time.

On June 3rd State Senate leaders held a meeting with the company that is the sole source of microstamping technology, and with anti-gun individuals and groups such as the Brady Campaign and New Yorkers Against Gun Violence. The purpose of this meeting was to see the technology in its current form, and to plan the campaign for microstamping legislation in the State Senate. Pro-Second Amendment groups that tried to attend this meeting were barred at the door. Excluded were Tom King of the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Becky Williams of the National Rifle Association and Jake McGuigan of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (an industry group). This is only the latest instance of New York State lawmakers attempting to hide from pro-Second Amendment voters and organizations. In April of this year the State Assembly changed its long-planned "Gun Day" in order to avoid thousands of Sportsmen headed to Albany to protest legislation proposed to limit their rights. The NYSRPA condemns the State Senate for conducting New Yorkers' business behind closed doors, and for depriving New York's sportsmen and gun owners of a voice in shaping legislation that affects them.