Below is an email from the President to NYS Member of Assembly Linda Rosenthal in response to the bill she sponsored which would prohibit peace officers from carrying firearms for any purpose during the scope of their employment other than to dispose of such firearm.
Please consider contacting her with your thoughts and opinion on this poorly conceived proposed legislation. She may be contacted by sending an email to RosentL@nyassembly.gov.
Remember the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.
Assemblywoman Rosenthal,
Maybe you don't realize what we do? Maybe you are a law enforcement hater? Or maybe you just do not do your due diligence as an elected official. I hope that you never need protection while doing your job, but I know that other elected officials do. Who you may ask? Judges, that's who.
In your protected world, you probably don't get out much with the criminal element. NYS Court Officers serve and protect the courts of this once great state. These men and woman are sworn Peace Officers who provide security for judges, attorneys, and court users. They go through fourteen weeks of vigorous training at the NYS Court Officers Academy. They then graduate and are assigned in a uniform to protect courts throughout the state. The protect part, maybe that is what you are having issues with?
Why do we need to protect the courthouses? Let me refer you to an incident in Middletown NY back in 2012. An armed man enters the courthouse which also houses the Orange County Mayors office. There the man is greeted by two uniformed court officers. The man opens fire on the court officers wounding one as they exchange gunfire stopping the shooter prior to entering. The Office of Court Administration issues the following statement: "The court officers today not only acted appropriately, they acted heroically. If this gunman had gotten past these court officers there would have been a bloodbath."
In another incident in 2018 in Richmond County, court officers break up a fight within the courthouse between rival gang members. After their court hearings, these gang members weren't finished. One opens fire at the others in a moving van. Court officers run outside to help innocent bystanders and are the first on the scene and arrest these men saving lives.
So before you put up bills to disarm peace officers, do your due diligence and protect your constituency which is what armed peace officers do!