Philipstown Councilmembers Talk Gun Storage Legislation
By Neal Rentz
While acknowledging the issue is wildly controversial in the community, the Philipstown town board is moving forward with legislation to require safe storage of guns.
At its Jan. 10 meeting the board came to a consensus on potential legislation and it will schedule a date for a public hearing when it meets on Jan. 17.
The potential local law would require gun owners in Philipstown to store their weapon or weapons securely to prevent theft and/or access by children and other people who should not possess firearms. No owner or custodian of a firearm would be able to leave their firearm out of his or her immediate possession in their home without physically giving it to a lawful custodian, having it placed in a locked container or disabling the gun with a safety locking device. If a resident is accused of violating the safe storage law, they could face a misdemeanor charge and if convicted, could be fined up to $1,000 or imprisoned in county jail for up to a year, or both. But in order to encourage residents to report to law enforcement agencies lost or stolen firearms, a person who files a report with police would not be subject to a violation of the safe storage ordinance, according to the current proposal.
Town Attorney Stephen Gaba said several local governments in New York State have gun storage laws including New York City, Westchester County, and Saratoga Springs.
“There’s a number of laws on the books,” he said.
Supervisor Richard Shea told the large town hall audience that attended last week’s meeting that it was a work session and no public comment was going to be accepted.
Town board members of the all Democtrat council expressed support for the concept of safe gun storage. “It’s common sense,” Councilwoman Nancy Montgomery said.
Councilman John Van Tassel, a gun owner, said there have been comments raised by some residents who said safe storage legislation would be costly because it would be challenged in court. But Van Tassel said Westchester County “had it for a number of years” without being challenged in the courts. While Westchester County’s law has not been legally challenged, other governments, including the State of Massachusetts (which won in court) have been challenged, Gaba said.
Councilman Michael Leonard, who was ill with the flu, did not attend last week’s meeting. Shea told his colleagues he did not want to set a public hearing date until Leonard had an opportunity to review the draft of the legislation.
Van Tassel said the local law should be tailored to protect children when they are in a home of a gun owner. If in the future a child was killed by an unsecured gun he would feel responsible because the town board did not take action on safe storage legislation, he said.
“If a gun is not in your possession it should be locked up,” Montgomery added. Shea said the proposed legislation would not be unfairly burdensome to gun owners.
“I own guns. They are secured,” Shea said. “We’re not taking your guns away. If you are a gun owner you should be a responsible gun owner.”
Shea suggested that rather than mandating gun owners have containers for their guns, a gun owner could choose to have a safety locking device, which could be obtained at no cost from the Putnam County Sheriff ’s Department.
At last week’s meeting, Rebecca Fischer, acting executive director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, advocated passage of the safe storage legislation. Guns that are not safely stored could be dangerous if handled by children and could be used in suicide attempts, Fischer said.
The town board came to a consensus to have Gaba write language into the legislation that would mandate gun owners to control or lock their guns when a child in present in their homes. Van Tassel said a major goal of the legislation is to protect children.
