NY SAFE Act

The New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act of 2013, commonly known as the NY SAFE Act, is a gun control law in the state of New York. The law was passed by the New York State Legislature and was signed into law by Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo in January 2013. The legislation was written in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, and the Webster, New York, shooting. Cuomo described the law as the toughest gun control law in the United States.

The NY SAFE Act contains a number of firearms regulations. It also contains a severability provision that allows other measures to remain in place in case the broad prohibitions against weapons are invalidated by the courts.

The New York State Senate approved the act on a 43–18 vote on January 14, 2013. The vote was bipartisan, with nine Senate Republicans voting in favor. State Senator Jeffrey D. Klein sponsored the legislation.

The following day (the second full day of the 2013 legislative session), the New York State Assembly approved the legislation by a 104–43 vote, and Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the bill into law less than one hour later. The passage of the law made New York the first to pass restrictions on gun laws since the Sandy Hook massacre. Cuomo described the law as the toughest gun control law in the United States.

The bill passed under the "message of necessity" procedure, a device in the New York State Constitution by which the governor may expedite a vote on a bill, bypassing a usual three-day waiting period. Although nominally used for emergencies, the "message of necessity" procedure has been frequently used in New York to pass many pieces of legislation (it has been used at least 415 times since 1938).

The NY SAFE Act includes the following provisions:

Support for the SAFE Act was strongly polarized by region, with support in New York City and its suburbs, but heavy opposition in upstate New York. Fourteen months after its passage, a Siena College poll showed that 63% of registered New York voters statewide said that they support the SAFE Act, but only 45% of upstate voters did. The New York Times reported that in Upstate New York, "Counties, towns and villages have passed resolutions denouncing the laws, and some counties have even demanded that their official seals not be used on any paperwork relating to them. In response to an open records request, the governor's office shared hundreds of pages of such resolutions, from far-flung places like the Adirondack town of North Hudson, with 238 residents, to more populous areas like Erie County." By contrast, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. (D‑NY) strongly supported the law, saying that it would "provide law enforcement with stronger tools to protect our communities from gun violence, including provisions that better enable us to combat gun trafficking and violent gangs, and others that close the state gun show loophole and regulate large-quantity sales of ammunition and firearms."

Following the passage of the Act, the New York State Sheriff's Association (NYSSA) wrote a letter offering a mixed opinion on the SAFE Act. The NYSSA favored the parts of the law that enhanced sentences for violent offenses committed with a gun, expanded background checks, and mandated safe storage of guns in households that included a member ineligible to legally use guns. The NYSSA opposed the parts of the law that expanded the definition of assault weapons, limited magazine usage, and limited ammunition sales via the Internet.