BY JEFF CHUDZINSKI
North Country This Week

CANTON — St. Lawrence County legislators have voiced opposition to the state’s new fee and background check scheme for ammunition purchases.

During the legislature’s full board meeting on Sept. 11, legislators voted to approve a resolution outlining the body’s opposition to the laws, which were implemented through the Concealed Carry Improvement Act (CCIA) in 2022.

The vote was a roll call vote at the request of Legislator Glenn Webster.

Thirteen legislators voted in favor of the resolution, with Legislator Margaret Haggard being the lone ‘no’ vote. Legislator John Gennett was not in attendance for the meeting.

Under the CCIA, state police will handle all firearm and ammunition background checks with the state’s move to a Point of Contact state.

Under the previous system, state gun dealers would call in background checks to the FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check System to conduct all background checks on firearm purchases at no cost.

Now, dealers will have to submit information for both firearm and ammunition purchases to the state police, who will act as an intermediary for dealers. The information will be submitted to NICS by the state police, who then relay the decision back to dealers.

Before conducting a background check, dealers must pay $2.50 per background check for an ammunition purchase and $9 for all firearm background checks.

Prior to the CCIA, dealers did not conduct background checks on ammunition and no fees were required to conduct said checks.

In the resolution, legislators cited District of Columbia v. Heller, McDonald v. City of Chicago and NYSRPA v. Bruen as primary cases that asserted an individual’s right to keep and bear arms that extended outside of the home for self-defense.

Legislators say the CCIA and its proponents are a way to circumvent those decisions while depriving citizens of their right to self defense and is another way the state will “flout the Bruen precedent” by creating another set of new, stringent requirements in order to obtain a concealed carry license.

In the resolution, legislators also noted the multiple ongoing lawsuits against the state in relation to the CCIA, saying the legislators have also authorized County Attorney Steve Button to explore legal options to challenge the CCIA.

Button is currently serving “of counsel” in the ongoing Antonyuk v. Bruen case after legislators approved his participation last fall.

In that case, a judge in the Northern District of New York Federal Court struck multiple portions of the CCIA, however the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision, allowing the CCIA to stand almost in its entirety.

“The initial decisions regarding the Concealed Carry Improvement Act makes clear that the legislation is constitutionally infirm and should not continue forward,” the resolution states.

Legislators say a copy of the resolution will be sent to Governor Kathy Hochul, Senator Mark Walcyzk, Senator Dan Stec, Assemblyman Ken Blankenbush and Assemblyman Scott Gray.