ALBANY — A Queens Democratic state senator took a shot at the chamber’s GOP majority for holding up a “common-sense” bill to take permitted firearms away from the mentally ill.
Jose Peralta’s bill would give judges the power to strip people of their guns and permits to possess them if they are involuntarily committed to an institution, forced into outpatient treatment or acquitted of a crime by “reason of mental disease or defect.”
It has passed the Assembly four times with bipartisan support — including this year with just four “no” votes — but it has never been taken up by the state Senate, even during the Democrats’ brief majority in 2009 and 2010.
“Cynics might say the bill gets squashed in the Senate because of all the campaign money the NRA gives to Republicans,” Peralta said. “But even the NRA is on record saying that the mentally ill shouldn’t have access to deadly firepower.”
Not long after the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings, National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said his group believes a person should be denied a firearm if they are found to be mentally deficient, suicidal, or a danger to themselves or others.
An NRA spokesman did not return calls for comment.
With two weeks remaining in the legislative session, the Senate GOP majority was noncommittal about the bill’s chances of finally coming up for a vote.
“No decision has been made at this time,” said Senate GOP spokesman Scott Reif.
In previous years, the Assembly twice passed the bill unanimously.
Assemblyman Andy Goodell, a Chautauqua County Republican conservative who has run with Tea Party support, called the measure “a reasonable approach.”
“You don’t want people, who are not in control of all their senses or emotions or feelings, to have a firearm,” Goodell argued.
Assemblyman Donald Miller (R-Onondaga County) said Second Amendment rights groups that he spoke with before voting for the bill expressed few problems with it. One of the only concerns they raised, Miller added, was how it easy it would be for someone to reapply for a gun permit if medical officials reverse an earlier determination of mental illness.
Even one of the four “no” votes in the Assembly this year said she supports the bill’s intent.
Assemblywoman Nancy Calhoun (R-Orange County) said she only voted against it because she wanted an amendment that allowed military veterans who recover from post-traumatic-stress syndrome to be able to get their hunting and pistol permits back.
klovett@nydailynews.com
