Tag Archives: OtsegoCounty

Otsego County does not want its official seal used on a New York State Police web site

Otsego County has become one of the first counties in New York to tell the state it does not want its official seal used on a New York State Police web site being created to help gun owners comply with a new mandate that they renew their county-issued pistol permits.

“This would make more work for us,” Sheriff Richard Devlin Jr. told the county Board of Representatives this week before panel voted 13-0, with one abstention, to come against having any county logo or seal on a web site now being set up by state police.

The pistol permit recertification requirement was one of the legs in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s gun-control measure, known as the SAFE Act, which was adopted in Albany last January. Certain features of the law, such as restrictions on the size of ammunition magazines, have proven to be unpopular with some county sheriffs across the state.

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Otsego board calls for gun law’s repeal

Wednesday’s vote by the Otsego Board of Representatives was a symbolic one that puts the county on record as being in support of repealing the law. The state Association of Counties had recommended that counties consider a a different option — calling for the amendment of the law.

But critics of the Cuomo legislation said it amounts to such an infringement on the constitutional rights of gun owners that the entire measure should be erased from the books.

Nine representatives voted for repeal, and only four opposed the resolution. The four opposed to repeal are all Oneonta Democrats: Catherine Rothenberger, Linda Rowinski, Gary Koutnik and Katherine Stuligross. Rep. Pauline Koren, R-Milford, was absent from the meeting.

Among the Democrats who broke ranks with Cuomo, the de facto head of the state Democratic Party, on the issue was Rep. Beth Rosenthal, D-Roseboom.

Explaining her support for repeal, Rosenthal said: “It was the way the law was enacted, aside from the fact there were definitely flaws in it. I would like to see good legislation come out of Albany, and I could not support SAFE Act because of the way it was done, in the dark of night, no sunshine, and with no public input.”

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Otsego County Democratic Committee registers disagreement with significant aspects of NY SAFE

In an extraordinary break with a new policy that has been ballyhooed by Cuomo, a wing of the governor’s own party — the Otsego County Democratic Committee — has registered its disagreement with significant aspects of the so-called assault weapon legislation.

A resolution adopted by the committee states that it is “not necessarily apparent that the prohibition of such firearms and magazines will, in fact, enhance pubic safety.” It also states that provisions requiring owners to register weapons that did not previously have to be registered also fails to enhance public safety.

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