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NY bans "Disguised knives"
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
- NY Sportsmen Alert - New York State is about to outlaw knifes that do not look like knifes. This bill has already passed in the Senate (55-1) and will be voted on in the Assembly where it is sure to pass. This bill is the brainchild of the Governor.................... Thanks to SCOPE NY for getting this information out to the public. PLEASE CONTACT YOUR REPRESENATIVES BY PHONE OR MAIL. Amd SS265.00 & 265.01, Pen L : Makes possession of any disguised knife the class A misdemeanor of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree; defines the term "disguised knife". ________________________ 24. "DISGUISED KNIFE" MEANS ANY KNIFE WHICH IS DESIGNED TO APPEAR AS4 AN OBJECT OTHER THAN A KNIFE, SUCH AS A COMB, WRITING INSTRUMENT, CIGA-5 RETTE LIGHTER OR OTHER OBJECT COMMONLY CARRIED ON THE PERSON, AND WHICH6 INCLUDES A BLADE CONCEALED WITHIN SUCH OBJECT. http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?bn=S05849&sh=t
New York Bowhunters group leads opposition By WILL ELLIOTT - Buffalo News Critics continue to take aim at crossbows, and the opposition is led by fellow archers, who argue that the device is almost a gun. As in previous years, a select group of bow hunters this past session successfully blocked passage of legislation that would legalize the crossbow as a hunting device in New York State. If the opposition came from anti-gun or anti-hunting factions, the cause - if not the fervor - could be understood. But this anti-crossbow sentiment has been coming from an otherwise august body of archers that formed in 1991 as the New York Bowhunters. NYB decision makers constantly lobby key state legislators and relentlessly inform archery club members of crossbow evils. The group uses the slogan, "It's not a bow, it has no place in archery seasons," and says it is "opposed to the creation of any new hunting or fishing season or the extension of any existing season that will decrease the length of the archery only season or displace the season into less favorable dates." With NYB leadership ensconced as it is, Ingrid Newkirk, Mary Tyler Moore and all other anti-hunting figureheads may have no need to make a pitch opposing this device so helpful to beginning shooters and older archers. While NYB consists mainly of dedicated, talented, devoted archers interested in promoting their sport, this writer believes the group continues to lose its edge as a group purported to represent New York bowhunters because of its obsessive opposition to crossbows at any level of hunting use. While 44 states have legalized the use of crossbows and the remaining six states have seen attempts at making them legal, NYB continues to cite 5- and 10-year old studies showing either an apparent unpopularity of this device or the opposition of organizations devoted exclusively to shooting vertical, hand-drawn bows. NYB bases its opposition on several factors. It cites preference surveys of national bow organizations and a Cornell University study done in 1985. Technical data in the Mullaney Report says a hand drawn and hand held vertical bow "is much more complicated than aiming a fixed set of ballistics," as one does when shooting a crossbow. NYB also cites the Marlow Report, which concludes "the crossbow is technically superior to the modern hand held bow in almost every category of comparison. . . . (the crossbow) is closer to being a firearm than a hand held bow." Several area bow club members have pointed out that a crossbow has a gun-like stock and a trigger similar to a rifle or shotgun. In recent months, the New York State Farm Bureau approved of crossbow use and 44 of 51 counties participating in New York State Conservation Council proceedings voted in favor of legalizing them. Nonetheless, each time a bill appears before state legislature members, NYB is right there with a "Crossbow Alert," supplying names of key senators and Assembly members, to thwart whatever might be proposed. This writer thinks the barrage of mailing and phone-call appeals has cost NYB in recent years. Its anti-crossbow - ultimately an anti-hunter - campaign has contributed directly to a marked decline in NYB membership. In 1995, about the time the crossbow campaign began, NYB could boast card-carrying archer numbers just above 4,000, according to its treasurer, Dale Walburger. Today, that roster lists fewer than 2,800 members. Attendance at statewide NYB functions has dropped markedly; a 10th Anniversary Rendezvous held at LeRoy on Sept. 15-16, 2001 drew fewer than 200 on Saturday and under 100 archers on Sunday. All this despite remarkable work Northwoods Sportsmen's Association members did in providing an interesting series of seminars, useful displays, a 40-target 3-D shooting course, and great food, and pleasant late-summer weather. What's wrong? New York bowhunters have told me they have grown tired of seeing most of NYB's efforts aimed at stopping crossbow hunters from becoming accepted as hunters. While NYB leaders inveigh against a device, their anti-crossbow efforts ultimately aim at those very hunters excluded - inadvertently or intentionally - from the ranks of deer hunters statewide. NYB assists fewer than 100 severely handicapped archers each year. Yet thousands of young archers unable to draw legal-sized vertical bows and thousands of older archers with conditions such as arthritis and bursitis could be buying archery licenses and hunting for deer - if crossbows were legal. Department of Environmental Conservation harvest and license sales numbers tell just where archery hunting in particular and deer hunting in general has headed in recent years. During the period that NYB membership declined (1996-2001), archery license sales went from 169,514 to 181,362. Today, NYB represents less than 1.7 percent of bow hunters in this state. In harvest numbers, archers, while their kill numbers have increased from 22,683 in 1996 to 29,812 in 2000-2001, have a total take of only 10 percent of the 295,859 deer killed by gun hunters (shotgun, rifle and muzzleloader). Hence, archers have a relatively minor role in deer kills for management purposes; no one could expect crossbows to magically increase harvests. Gun hunters outnumber archers almost four to one, with big-game license sales at 665,308 in 2000-2001. Given all these facts and numbers, one might conclude that archers should reject this New York Bowhunters organization. On the contrary, as an active and concerned archer, I would strongly urge that bow shooters recently dropping membership, those disappointed with current NYB activities and all bow hunters who have yet to affiliate with a local club or NYB, join and be heard. Archers are not just vertical bow hunters, not just purists who believe crossbows are guns, not just primitive shooters or shooters of unrelieved-string-pull bows. Archers' greatest source of strength is that they are almost all hunters who could be effectively united. Or they could be divided and diminished by anti-gun and anti-hunting groups. You can join or renew your NYB membership by sending $15 for a one-year membership to: New York Bowhunters, P.O. Box 619, Lafayette, N.Y. 13084. Then, all sportsmen and women will have greater unity - and clout - as archers and hunters collectively. I just might upgrade my NYB status to Life Membership - but not contribute to its "Anti-Crossbow Fund." ________________________________________________________________
New York Bowhunters group leads opposition By WILL ELLIOTT - Buffalo News Critics continue to take aim at crossbows, and the opposition is led by fellow archers, who argue that the device is almost a gun. As in previous years, a select group of bow hunters this past session successfully blocked passage of legislation that would legalize the crossbow as a hunting device in New York State. If the opposition came from anti-gun or anti-hunting factions, the cause - if not the fervor - could be understood. But this anti-crossbow sentiment has been coming from an otherwise august body of archers that formed in 1991 as the New York Bowhunters. NYB decision makers constantly lobby key state legislators and relentlessly inform archery club members of crossbow evils. The group uses the slogan, "It's not a bow, it has no place in archery seasons," and says it is "opposed to the creation of any new hunting or fishing season or the extension of any existing season that will decrease the length of the archery only season or displace the season into less favorable dates." With NYB leadership ensconced as it is, Ingrid Newkirk, Mary Tyler Moore and all other anti-hunting figureheads may have no need to make a pitch opposing this device so helpful to beginning shooters and older archers. While NYB consists mainly of dedicated, talented, devoted archers interested in promoting their sport, this writer believes the group continues to lose its edge as a group purported to represent New York bowhunters because of its obsessive opposition to crossbows at any level of hunting use. While 44 states have legalized the use of crossbows and the remaining six states have seen attempts at making them legal, NYB continues to cite 5- and 10-year old studies showing either an apparent unpopularity of this device or the opposition of organizations devoted exclusively to shooting vertical, hand-drawn bows. NYB bases its opposition on several factors. It cites preference surveys of national bow organizations and a Cornell University study done in 1985. Technical data in the Mullaney Report says a hand drawn and hand held vertical bow "is much more complicated than aiming a fixed set of ballistics," as one does when shooting a crossbow. NYB also cites the Marlow Report, which concludes "the crossbow is technically superior to the modern hand held bow in almost every category of comparison. . . . (the crossbow) is closer to being a firearm than a hand held bow." Several area bow club members have pointed out that a crossbow has a gun-like stock and a trigger similar to a rifle or shotgun. In recent months, the New York State Farm Bureau approved of crossbow use and 44 of 51 counties participating in New York State Conservation Council proceedings voted in favor of legalizing them. Nonetheless, each time a bill appears before state legislature members, NYB is right there with a "Crossbow Alert," supplying names of key senators and Assembly members, to thwart whatever might be proposed. This writer thinks the barrage of mailing and phone-call appeals has cost NYB in recent years. Its anti-crossbow - ultimately an anti-hunter - campaign has contributed directly to a marked decline in NYB membership. In 1995, about the time the crossbow campaign began, NYB could boast card-carrying archer numbers just above 4,000, according to its treasurer, Dale Walburger. Today, that roster lists fewer than 2,800 members. Attendance at statewide NYB functions has dropped markedly; a 10th Anniversary Rendezvous held at LeRoy on Sept. 15-16, 2001 drew fewer than 200 on Saturday and under 100 archers on Sunday. All this despite remarkable work Northwoods Sportsmen's Association members did in providing an interesting series of seminars, useful displays, a 40-target 3-D shooting course, and great food, and pleasant late-summer weather. What's wrong? New York bowhunters have told me they have grown tired of seeing most of NYB's efforts aimed at stopping crossbow hunters from becoming accepted as hunters. While NYB leaders inveigh against a device, their anti-crossbow efforts ultimately aim at those very hunters excluded - inadvertently or intentionally - from the ranks of deer hunters statewide. NYB assists fewer than 100 severely handicapped archers each year. Yet thousands of young archers unable to draw legal-sized vertical bows and thousands of older archers with conditions such as arthritis and bursitis could be buying archery licenses and hunting for deer - if crossbows were legal. Department of Environmental Conservation harvest and license sales numbers tell just where archery hunting in particular and deer hunting in general has headed in recent years. During the period that NYB membership declined (1996-2001), archery license sales went from 169,514 to 181,362. Today, NYB represents less than 1.7 percent of bow hunters in this state. In harvest numbers, archers, while their kill numbers have increased from 22,683 in 1996 to 29,812 in 2000-2001, have a total take of only 10 percent of the 295,859 deer killed by gun hunters (shotgun, rifle and muzzleloader). Hence, archers have a relatively minor role in deer kills for management purposes; no one could expect crossbows to magically increase harvests. Gun hunters outnumber archers almost four to one, with big-game license sales at 665,308 in 2000-2001. Given all these facts and numbers, one might conclude that archers should reject this New York Bowhunters organization. On the contrary, as an active and concerned archer, I would strongly urge that bow shooters recently dropping membership, those disappointed with current NYB activities and all bow hunters who have yet to affiliate with a local club or NYB, join and be heard. Archers are not just vertical bow hunters, not just purists who believe crossbows are guns, not just primitive shooters or shooters of unrelieved-string-pull bows. Archers' greatest source of strength is that they are almost all hunters who could be effectively united. Or they could be divided and diminished by anti-gun and anti-hunting groups. You can join or renew your NYB membership by sending $15 for a one-year membership to: New York Bowhunters, P.O. Box 619, Lafayette, N.Y. 13084. Then, all sportsmen and women will have greater unity - and clout - as archers and hunters collectively. I just might upgrade my NYB status to Life Membership - but not contribute to its "Anti-Crossbow Fund." ________________________________________________________________
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