With the Mamaroneck Town Council mulling a ban on firearm possession on town property, gun rights activists in Westchester County say they are ready to sue.
According to Scott Sommavilla, the president of the Westchester Firearms Association who will be attending a public hearing on Jan. 18, after press time, regarding the local law, his organization will be watching the council’s decision closely.
“The [council] doesn’t have legal authority,” he told the Review. “We’re lawyered up.”
Trustee Tom Murphy, a Democrat who said that the whole Town Council is behind the ban, said the law is being put forward in an attempt to make Mamaroneck safer.
“We realize that the law will not stop every mad man with a gun,” Murphy said. “But the idea is that the less guns in a public area, from people who aren’t authorized, will make everyone safer.”
Even despite the threat of litigation, Town Supervisor Nancy Seligson, a Democrat, said the council is undeterred.
“We haven’t really discussed [the possibility of a lawsuit],” Seligson said. “We feel like we’re crafting a law within our given rights.”
The ban would amend an existing provision in the town code and impose a ban on both town property as well as town-leased property.
Under the proposed amendment, only police officers and “persons in the service of the United States” would be exempt from any such ban.
The penalty for violating the potential ban, as enumerated in a draft currently on the town’s website, would be a court-imposed fine between $500 to $1,000.
The amendment previously contained a section banning certain styles of knives as well, but was removed after the Town Council was made aware that such weapons were already banned outright under New York State law.
Consideration of a town ban follows in the footsteps of a slew of gun-related fervor on both a local and countywide level, not the least divisive of which is a ban on gun shows held on county facilities passed by the county Board of Legislators earlier this month.
Similarly, the village of Rye Brook—in the wake of backlash over a Harrison gun store opening in close proximity to an elementary school—is considering laws that would forbid gun stores near schools. Those laws are currently being discussed before the village Planning Board.
