Assemblyman David DiPietro (R,C-East Aurora), a vocal opponent of New York’s SAFE ACT, today reiterated his concerns about the measure after it was discovered that the State of New York ordered a law-abiding citizen to surrender any and all weapons to his local police department. The misinformation provided by the New York State Police forced the Erie County Clerk to seek the suspension of the man’s pistol permit.

DiPietro noted that on April 1 a legal gun owner, at the request of the state, surrendered his firearms to the local police department, and had his permit to own a gun suspended. Now, 10 days later, it has been revealed that State Police had the wrong man. Furthermore, the gun owner’s medical history has been made public.

“First, I would like to say that I feel terrible that this happened to one of our citizens. This man is a victim of an overly intrusive government and deserves to be treated far better than this in a free society,” DiPietro said. “This is exactly what we were promised would not happen. This man had his Second Amendment rights violated and absolutely dissolved because of misinformation. We are seeing the eradication of the Bill of Rights right here in New York under this draconian law.”

DiPietro has authored Assembly Bill 6238, which calls for a full repeal of the SAFE Act. The law was passed through the legislature quickly under a “message of necessity” from Gov. Cuomo. The message allows the legislature to bypass the normal three-day “aging” process that legislation must normally go through.

“We must repeal this law before any other decent citizen has their Second Amendment rights or health care privacy violated because of bureaucratic oversight. These are fundamental, self-evident rights, and they should not be eradicated by politicians and brutalized by bureaucrats,” said DiPietro.

For more information on DiPietro, please contact his district office at (585) 786-0180. The assemblyman can also be reached via email at dipietrod@assembly.state.ny.us.