A coalition of elected officials from across New York City—including Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and City Council Members Costa Constantinides, Ritchie Torres, Paul A. Vallone, Andrew Cohen, Helen Rosenthal, and Vanessa Gibson—have issued a letter to Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President and CEO of the National Rifle Association, urging the organization to support legislation calling for a public registry of felony gun offenders in New York City.
“Since this legislation deals only with criminals, and since our focus is solely on illegal guns and their illegal use, we would hope that you would join us in this effort. Given your organization’s stated position as both ‘America’s foremost defender of Second Amendment rights’ and the ‘premier firearms education organization in the world,’ we feel certain that support of a public registry highlighting felony gun offenders fits well within your mission,” states the letter.
The complete letter can be found at http://on.nyc.gov/W6SXb1.
Introduced last month by Council Members Constantinides, Torres and Vallone at the behest of Borough President Diaz, the bill mandates that registered gun offenders will be listed in a publicly available online sub-directory, which will provide a searchable database. Individuals can sign up for free automatic email notifications when an offender moves into a geographic area they specified.
The registry will be updated on a monthly basis and will include: the offender’s name, block on which they live, a physical description, the crime the offender was convicted of, and sentence imposed. Gun offenders are required to be registered for only four years from the date of release or after conviction, after which their names are expunged.
More information about the legislation can be found at http://on.nyc.gov/1rfIgPp.