Our forefathers fought the Revolutionary War to escape tyranny. And the Second Amendment reads, in part, "the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." Yet we now have Gov. Andrew Cuomo making criminals out of innocent citizens in haste during the dark of night. No "light of day" to view the new law, no citizen input, leaving us today to fear our tyrannical government.
This new law requires all citizens who own assault guns to register them with police agencies. Cuomo has said he would consider confiscating assault weapons. We know what will happen to these registered guns; they will be confiscated.
Why didn't the Legislature take more time to study the issue and define the problem after due study and deliberation? There is no justification for the haste to pass this law. They could have made a law that targeted the criminal.
How about adding two years of mandatory confinement for every bullet possessed by the criminal while in the commission of a crime, no matter what kind of gun is used? There would be no need to restrict magazine size or to ban assault guns. The criminals will never register their guns or get rid of their large-capacity magazines.
We don't even know if this law really does anything to help protect children in schools. Why don't we use technology to immobilize intruders at schools?
Security specialists could consider all types of immobilization such as chemical sprays, air bags, entanglement nets, even robots to capture intruders. Most of these mass killers are afraid they will be captured, so they commit suicide. If they knew there was a good chance they would be captured, they would not target schools.
JOSEPH E. LAMENDOLA
Watertown