Starvin Larry

COOPERSTOWN — State Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, is sponsoring legislation that is aimed at repealing and amending the controversial NY SAFE Act gun control legislation enacted two years ago.

Seward, in a statement, this morning, acknowledged that winning passage of the package of four bills will be “a difficult fight” because of what he called New York’s “political landscape.”

To repeal or significantly amend the law would require that the measures co-authored by Seward and Assemblyman Anthony Brandisi, D-Utica, would require that that the bills be approved by the Assembly, which is dominated by New York City area Democrats, who largely favor the gun control measure advanced by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The SAFE Act was also supported by Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County, who heads the GOP conference of which Seward has been a member for 28 years.

Cuomo has maintained the law has helped protect New Yorkers from gun crimes. But many county sheriffs, including Otsego Sheriff Richard Devlin Jr., Schoharie Sheriff Tony Desmond and Delaware Sheriff Thomas Mills, have criticized the statute as an encroachment on the rights of law-abiding gun owners.

Seward, who voted against the SAFE Act, said though he favors the full repeal of the law, he is also “working to chip away at several of the law’s worst features.”

“The reactionary, hastily drafted and passed NY-SAFE Act was meant for headlines and has done nothing to stop criminals from getting guns and using them for illegal purposes,” Seward said. “We need to take action now to correct the many technical issues the law created for responsible gun owners who shoot for sport, collect firearms, and carry guns to protect themselves and their families.”

The Seward-Brindisi package aims to accomplish the following:

■ Amend the NY-SAFE Act to again allow for the gifting of long guns to close relatives and to holders of valid statte pistol licenses.

■ Repeal the provision struck down in federal court which limits the number of legally permissible cartridges in a 10-round magazine to seven.

■ Terminate an “ overly burdensome” state program requiring all ammunition retailer register with the state and conduct background checks on all customers. The bill also redirects state funding allocated to this program to public school districts to assist in the hiring of school resource officers.

■ Prohibit county judges and other licensing officers from imposing “extraneous restrictions that go above and beyond state law” when issuing pistol and handgun licenses.