Dorryn
Member
Plan to regulate antique guns worries collectors
By William Kates - ASSOCIATED PRESS
SYRACUSE — A New York City lawmaker’s plan to regulate antique firearms like other weapons could have severe economic repercussions for museums and historical societies around the state and prevent hundreds of living history events and re-enactments staged every year.
If passed in its current form, the proposal by Democratic Assemblyman Michael Gianaris of Queens would make the state the first in the country to require owners of antique guns, black powder weapons and muzzleloading firearms to go through a background check and purchase a license, said Ralph Walker, a legislative specialist with the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association.
“There is great opposition to the bill in its current form because it doesn’t recognize the circumstances of museums and re-enactment groups who own and use these firearms for educational purposes,” said Anne Ackerson, director of the Museum Association of New York, which represents 260 museums and heritage organizations across New York.
Currently, antique firearms are exempt from regulation under New York law. Gianaris’ plan would regulate them like handguns without exemptions for historic sites, museums, living history events, re-enact- ments, educational programs or purposes, or interpretative events.
Handgun laws in New York can vary from county to county, but generally they require a person to supply detailed personal information, a photograph and fingerprints that are then run through a federal background check. Handgun licenses typically cost $10 or less, although in New York City and Nassau County they cost $50. It can take up to six months to obtain a handgun license.
“The cost of a license is nominal, but for museums and local historical societies that have large collections, those costs can quickly add up,” Ackerson said. “And there are hundreds of small community historical societies with collections and for many the cost could be quite burdensome.”
Requiring re-enactors to obtain gun licenses would have a devastating impact, said Barbara O’Keefe, president of The Fort LaPresentation Association in Ogdensburg.
Fort LaPresentation attracts more than 200 living historians and thousands of visitors for its annual Founders Day in July, a weekend event that generates about $250,000 in economic activity for the community, she said. The fort also hosts several other living history events during the year.
Gianaris said he determined such guns needed regulating after two incidents last year.
One involved a St. John’s University student with a history of psychological illness who was apprehended on campus in possession of a loaded black powder rifle. In the second incident, a convicted felon wounded a New York state trooper with a black powder rifle.
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