Did Governor Cuomo threaten Sheriffs in New York to shut up or face removal if they persist in criticizing New York's gun control law ?

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Sheriffs-Cuomo-asked-for-silence-4532930.php

Sheriffs: Cuomo asked for silence

Law officials say governor tried to quiet criticism of gun law

By Jimmy Vielkind

Updated 7:18 am, Tuesday, May 21, 2013

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  Governor Andrew Cuomo held a cabinet meeting today May 20, 2013 in the Red Room of the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)
  
  
  Albany

  The sheriffs thought they were being summoned to the Capitol to discuss ideas for changes to New York's gun control law, the SAFE Act. Instead, Gov. Andrew Cuomo told them to keep quiet.

  Opposition to the new law has simmered in upstate areas since Cuomo signed the law in January. Many county sheriffs oppose it, particularly its expanded definition of banned assault weapons, and have spoken out around the state. In January, the New York State Sheriffs' Association wrote Cuomo with an analysis, and later suggested tweaks.

  Cuomo invited its leaders to the Capitol last month, people briefed on the meeting said. The group included Sheriffs' Association Executive Director Peter Kehoe and Chemung County Sheriff Christopher Moss.

  "We didn't get a response (to the analysis) from him, but we could tell after the budget was passed that none of those recommendations were taken into consideration," Moss said. "When we got there, we never got to the contents of the letter."

  Instead, Cuomo pushed the sheriffs to stop publicly speaking out against the act, Moss said.

  "The governor was of the opinion that the sheriffs around the state should not be interjecting their personal opinions in reference to the law," Moss said, adding that Cuomo said sheriffs can't do that and enforce the law.

  One person briefed on the meeting said Cuomo threatened to remove sheriffs from office, a little-used power afforded the state's chief executive under the state constitution. Moss would not confirm this. He did say the meeting was heated at times, but overall he described it as "cordial."

  Kehoe did not return calls, and Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi declined to comment. An administration official, speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to discuss a private meeting, "strongly" denied Cuomo had threatened to remove any sheriff.

  Last week, the Sheriffs' Association as well as several elected sheriffs filed an amicus curiae brief supporting a federal challenge to the SAFE Act.

  "We're not really protesting the law; we're protesting the methodology in which the law was forced upon the people without input of the people," said Livingston County Sheriff John York, a Republican who chairs the group's executive committee.

  Erie County Sheriff Tim Howard has said he "won't enforce" the act.

  Cuomo has said the law will "save lives."

  The law broadened the definition of banned assault weapons, increased penalties for illegal gun possession, reduced public access to gun permit information and required mental health professionals to report concerns about a gun-owning patient who posed a risk of harming himself or others. It bans any magazine with the capacity to accept more than 10 rounds, and bars people from loading magazines with more than seven cartridges.

  The bill was unveiled on Jan. 14 and passed through a "message of necessity" that waived a three-day waiting period. The Senate, led by a Republican-dominated coalition, passed the bill by a 43-18 vote hours after the text became public. The Democrat-dominated Assembly passed it the next day, and Cuomo signed it.

  In the amicus brief, the sheriffs wrote: "Law enforcement's work is made more difficult attempting to enforce unclear laws that harm, rather than promote, public safety. The laws appear willfully blind to legitimate safety interests, and instead are tailored to impact, and negatively impact, law-abiding firearm owners."

  Asked last week about the court brief, Cuomo said, "They're free to litigate — God bless America."

  He did not directly say if he thought sheriffs should speak out against laws they enforce, but said, "They're politicians. They run for office, too."

  On Monday, Cuomo said Rensselaer County Clerk Frank Merola was "not upholding the law" when he said last week he would refuse to release permit-holder information. The law allows permit holders to make their information exempt from state Freedom of Information Law disclosure if they apply and meet set criteria.

  Merola, a Republican, said that sifting through the applications would take resources his office cannot spare. Instead, he will not release any pistol permit data.

  "That's not for a county clerk to do on a blanket basis," Cuomo said. "You can't decide what the law is or change the law — their job is to enforce the law administratively."

  
  

  
  

  New York Sheriffs follow Colorado Sheriffs opposition to recently enacted gun control laws ...... note the opposition in both states to the Sheriffs voicing their concerns ( freedom of speech being de facto outlawed ? ) 

  
  

  NEWTOWN, Conn --(Ammoland.com)- New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo invited representatives of the New York State Sheriff’s Association to meet with him and discuss issues with the recently passed “SAFE Act.”
  

  At least that’s what the sheriffs thought the meeting would be about.

  But instead, according to this article in the Albany Times Union, Cuomo told the sheriffs to cease and desist expressing their wide-ranging comments in opposition to many of the law’s provisions.  “The governor was of the opinion that the sheriffs around the state should not be interjecting their personal opinions in reference to the law,” according to one attendee.
  News flash to the governor:  That cat is out of the bag, since both the Sheriff’s Association and several individual sheriffs have joined the litigation against the new law.  But the governor isn’t out of options yet.  No meeting attendee was willing to confirm this, but at least one source says that Cuomo threatened to use an obscure power of the governor’s office to remove sheriffs from office.
  New York is not the only state where sheriffs are speaking out against new gun laws.  In Colorado, a majority of state sheriffs have joined litigation against new gun laws filed earlier this week.  NSSF is also a party to the Colorado lawsuit, and proud to support the sheriffs for pointing out obvious problems with the new law, as noted in this article, which quotes their filing as follows:
  

  
  

  “The Sheriffs have limited resources and limited public funds to spend on investigations . . . They cannot expend those resources to conduct investigations that would be necessary to monitor compliance with the new magazine restrictions. No documentation has ever been required for the retail or private purchase of magazines, making it a practical impossibility for the Sheriffs to determine whether one of the many magazines already in existence was obtained after the effective date.”

  Of course, we told them that before the law was passed, but Colorado legislators weren’t listening then, any more than Cuomo is willing to hear criticism of his trademark law now.  And we recall thatColorado legislators protested comments by state sheriffs in opposition when their new law was under debate.
  It is rapidly becoming a hallmark of anti-gun politicians to view the First Amendment with equal disdain as the Second Amendment.  Both are “inconvenient truths” in their zeal to enact new restrictions on our rights and our industry.