PA Bill Number: HB335
Title: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons.
Description: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons. ...
Last Action: Re-committed to APPROPRIATIONS
Last Action Date: May 6, 2024
Upstate New York Sheriff Urges Residents to Carry Their Guns :: 12/04/2015
An upstate sheriff created a stir online Thursday after he posted a Facebook FB 1.72 % message encouraging licensed handgun owners to keep their weapons on them in light of this week’s mass shooting in California.
Ulster County handgun owners should be proficient with their weapons and knowledgeable of state firearms laws to ensure the safety of themselves and others, according to the message posted by Sheriff Paul Van Blarcum.
He also encouraged active-duty and retired police and peace officers such as constables to take their weapons with them whenever they leave their homes.
“I urge you to responsibly take advantage of your legal right to carry a firearm,” Sheriff Van Blarcum wrote in the message posted about noon.
There are more than 10,000 permits to own and carry a handgun in Ulster County, according to the sheriff’s office.
Sheriff Van Blarcum’s comments came one day after 14 people were killed Wednesday in San Bernardino, Calif. It was the deadliest U.S. mass shooting since the 2012 attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
Ulster County is a rural county in the Catskill Mountains about 70 miles north of New York City.
Dan Torres, a councilman in New Paltz, N.Y., said the sheriff’s comments wouldn’t solve the problem of mass shootings.
“I think the post creates more hysteria than solves any problems,” Mr. Torres said. “I respect the sheriff, but I don’t think that was the best post at this time considering the national circumstances.”
Sheriff Van Blarcum, who was elected to his third four-year term in 2014, also had a lot of defenders.
“I’m fully supportive of what the sheriff said,” Roger Rascoe, chairman of the Ulster County Republican Committee and a licensed handgun owner. “If someone has a legal right to carry a weapon, it’s better to have them armed in those situations than not.”
Sheriff Van Blarcum, 59 years old, also dismissed criticisms that encouraging licensed handgun owners to defend themselves and others from active shooters could lead to more dangerous situations.
“If s— hit the fan, I would rather have somebody there with a weapon,” he said. “I’d rather be able to defend myself.”
Sheriff Van Blarcum added that he didn’t think his post would create such a contentious debate.
“I was doing this from my heart,” he said. “I was really heartbroken by what is happening around the world and this thing in California, and I felt like I wasn’t doing enough to encourage people to be armed, and be respectful and responsible about that.”
http://www.wsj.com/articles/upstate-new-york-sheriff-urges-residents-to-carry-their-guns-1449194805
