Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Gun rights advocates in New York State have scored a legal victory over Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration in regards to a 2014 gun-rights rally during which state troopers are accused of intimidating attendees and violating their First Amendment rights.
“I was there, and it was total intimidation,” said New York State Assemblyman David DiPietro. “That was done by the governor on purpose to try and intimidate people.”
A gun-rights group, the Shooters Committee on Political Education, or SCOPE, sought records regarding the event. They seek to learn if state lawyers “concocted a special regulation designed to suppress protestors’ right to use toy guns in exercise of their First Amendment Rights,” according to court papers.
The Cuomo Administration refused to give up all the requested documents, numbering more than 150, citing attorney-client privilege. The state is expected to appeal the ruling.
The April 1, 2014 rally drew an estimated 5,000 demonstrators. As the speakers railed against the SAFE Act, however, police confiscated two signs or items that looked like replicas of assault weapons, one plastic and one made of wood. Lawyer John Ostrowski, representing SCOPE, argued that the gun replicas were “political messages and were clearly not firearms.”
The decision came less than two months after another judge ordered the State Police to relinquish information on weapons registrations, as required by Cuomo’s signature Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement (SAFE) Act of 2013.
Central to the law was a ban on assault weapons, characterized by military-style features such as pistol grips or flash suppressors. The ban angered Second Amendment supporters who coalesced around groups like SCOPE. It also sparked a number of lawsuits.
DiPietro blasted Cuomo’s administration for secrecy.
“Here’s the governor, who is being demanded by the court to turn over public documents, and he keeps refusing,” DiPietro said. “That’s the height of arrogance.”