OPINION

New York's SAFE Act isn't working

ROC

Guns are responsible for crime like cars are responsible for drunk driving. Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other politicians who focus on the tool used to harm others are falsely blaming the object, not the person using it.

We should step back and focus on the underlying causes of recent tragedies, including mental illness and New York's revolving-door criminal justice system.

Not one provision of the Cuomo gun laws known as the SAFE Act would have prevented tragedies like those in West Webster, or Aurora, Colo., or the Sandy Hook school in Connecticut.

Like most laws which are poorly conceived, drafted in haste and voted upon by legislators who have not read them, the Cuomo gun laws are hopelessly ineffective and not enforceable.

More than a year after the laws' enactment, the State Police have been unable to develop the databases required for tracking ammunition sales, and have not issued clear guidance on key aspects of the law.

Further, they have not printed the most basic forms to be used by county clerks for record keeping.

Virtually every county Sheriff has derided the law's slapdash approach, with some saying flatly they will not enforce the new rules.

Even the Obama Administration has refused to comply with the mental health reporting requirements of the law, a stunning rebuke in light of President Obama's support for gun control.

For these reasons, law enforcement experts predict the compliance rate for the Cuomo gun laws' firearms registration provisions will be less than 10 percent.

Instead of endless arguments about the usefulness of gun laws, let's work together to confront the reality that mental health problems and hard core criminals are behind the senseless acts of violence we see in the news.

Virtually every case involving these horrific murders can be traced to psychotropic drugs or undiagnosed mental illness, or repeat offenders released onto our streets by New York's notoriously lax criminal justice system.

The tragedies in West Webster were committed by a man who killed his own grandmother with a hammer, but who was allowed free to kill again.

He would not have been stopped by the SAFE Act or any other anti-gun law. He would have been stopped if he had been kept in jail.

Andrew Cuomo's gun laws are also costing New York thousands of the jobs supported by shooting sports.

Remington, a New York manufacturer since 1816, recently announced its new manufacturing facility would be located in Alabama, not New York, because they felt they were not wanted here.

At least a dozen other companies have similarly left New York, taking thousands of our jobs with them.

If we are serious about dealing with violent crime, we need to involve law enforcement and mental health professionals in developing strategies for preventing violence.

We can all work together toward this goal, but first we need to stop the failed strategies of the grandstanding politicians.

Nojay is a member of the New York Assembly, representing the 133rd District, including Livingston and parts of Monroe and Steuben counties.