Another problematic technicality in SAFE Act

Re state laws governing the disposal and sale of firearms, there is currently an inquiry being addressed by DEC that was posed by several volunteer sportsman education instructors.
   During sportsman education courses, firearms are “transferred and possessed” from the instructors to the students and back again. Under the SAFE Act, it appears that the instructors and the students would be committing a violation while we are instructing them in the safe and responsible handling of firearms — unless a background check was performed each time.
   My fellow instructors and I have labored to provide new hunters with the means to be safe and responsible individuals. New York state has benefited greatly through our efforts, as hunting in New York is one of the safest sports, with over 600,000 hunters in the woods annually, and an incident rate of less than 1 percent.
   Moreover, the state has enjoyed revenue from sportsman license sales and the economic benefits that hunters provide. Annually, volunteer instructors certify 30,000 new hunters, who spend, on average, between $60 and $100 on their licenses, or about $2.4 million, using an average of $80 spent per person on licenses.
   You should also be aware there is a growing movement to not only cease all gun sportsman education classes across the state until this matter is resolved, but also to refrain from purchasing 2013-2014 licenses by the existing hunting community. Could the state afford to absorb the impact of such an action? Could upstate communities absorb the economic impact of such actions?
   Not only does this act seem to affect this group, but also state police firearms training instructors and students, the National Guard, the Air National Guard, and any and all state and federal personnel who require firearms certification on firearms they do not currently own. The Border Patrol, county sheriffs’ deputies, local police, security firm employees, peace officers, and any other individuals who are required to be certified or trained in the use of any firearm, where one firearm is “transferred and possessed” during the activity, are subject to this law.
   In addition, all “junior shooting programs,” such as 4-H, and many private sportsman’s clubs, where the individuals have to use a firearm they do not own and have to borrow same, will have to cease, as background checks are currently required under this law for the “transfer and possession” during the training activity, and would have to be performed at each training session.
   The fact remains that in the haste to implement the SAFE Act, a crucial review was not conducted, and the ramifications of this law were not considered. Or were they?
   All that has occurred, to date, has not been to make the public safer, but only to make criminals out of law-abiding citizens. Is this what Gov. Cuomo intended?
   Gov. Cuomo has, again and again, said that “the people of New York must trust their government.” How can he expect that to happen, when, from his office down to the Senate and the Assembly, all that has been brought forward has been to impose unrealistic mandates, make criminals out of law abiding citizens, while at the same time the criminals are laughing their heads off at the governor and us?
   Isn’t it time to review the provisions of the SAFE Act, and correct this law to reflect his original intent — to penalize criminals and make the public safer?
   JOSEPH VIVA
   Ballston Lake