Knife Law Reform In New York Must Wait Another Year

Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) ignored the overwhelming support in both houses of the New York Assembly for reform of New York's gravity knife law and vetoed the bill today. The bill had the support of groups such as the NAACP and the ACLU who normally would not support a pro-2A bill. In this case, they saw the harm that the existing law caused for the average New Yorker.

I guess I could make a joke about Cuomo getting confused on what he was supposed to do after indulging in one too many of girlfriend Sandra Lee's cocktails but what he did was give the average New Yorker the finger.

Knife Rights has the full story below.

Cuomo Sides with NYC Pols - Gives Finger to the People 

Waiting until the last possible moment, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has vetoed Knife Rights' Gravity Knife and Switchblade Reform Bill, effectively giving the finger to New York's legislature that overwhelmingly passed the bill and the large coalition of organizations, many part of his own constituency, which supported the bill. Despite the thousands who called and emailed the Governor to sign the bill, and thanks very much for those who did so, he sided with the disingenuous arguments made by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill and District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr., virtually the only ones who opposed the bill. In vetoing this bill he has potentially doomed thousands more to arrest and prosecution for carrying common pocket knives that won't get someone arrested virtually anywhere except in New York City.

Despite Cuomo's avowed commitment to criminal justice reform in New York, this veto clearly shows the lie to that claim.

Next year's session of the New York Legislature is almost upon us and we'll be back again working to fix the state's Gravity Knife law to prevent these arrests and prosecutions. This bill passed with such large majorities in both houses of the legislature that an override of a veto is theoretically possible.

Meanwhile, our five-year-old Federal civil rights lawsuit over the constitutionality of New York City's "wrist flick" test awaits a decision which could settle the issue for certain.