The Town Board is aware of the country's current plague
of shootings of, and other types of attacks on, innocent persons in
schools, in the workplace, in places of worship, in other public places,
and in homes. The Town Board recognizes that it cannot solve this
problem and is mindful of the right to bear arms given to the people
by the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution and by New
York Civil Rights Law § 4. Balanced against these rights
is the Town's objective of providing a safe work environment
for Town employees and a safe place for visitors to Town buildings.
Weighing these competing points, the Town Board finds that safety
is paramount. Therefore, this article bans possession of firearms
within the Town buildings identified in this article by persons other
than those permitted to do so by this article.
| |
In enacting this article, the Town Board is relying on the oft-quoted
phrase from the United States Supreme Court's decision in District
of Columbia v Heller, 554 US 570, 626 (2008):
| |
"Although we do not undertake an exhaustive historical analysis
today of the full scope of the Second Amendment, nothing in our opinion
should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding . . . laws forbidding
the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government
buildings. . . ."
| |
and the Supreme Court's reiteration of that proposition
in McDonald v City of Chicago, Illinois, 561 US 742, 786 (2010) ("We
made it clear in Heller that our holding did not cast doubt on such
longstanding regulatory measures as . . . 'laws forbidding the carrying
of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings.
. . .' ").
| |
Preceding Heller and McDonald, the Attorney General of the State
of New York, in Informal Opinion No. 89-75, opined that a village,
when acting in its proprietary capacity, could ban possession of firearms
within Village Hall. In reaching this conclusion, the Attorney General
relied upon Barrett v Kunzig, 331 F. Supp. 266, 272 (M.D. Tenn 1971),
cert den, 409 US 914 (1972) which had observed: "[I]t would seem clear
that the United States Government and its custodian, General Services
Administration, could make use of its property as could any private
citizen with his home. Hence, it could prevent entry or make such
conditions as it deemed proper as a precedent to entry."
| |
After Heller, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals faced a case
where banning the possession of firearms on government property was
the issue. In Bonidy v United States Postal Serv., 790 F3d 1121 (10th
Cir. 2015), the Court of Appeals upheld the constitutionality of the
section of the Code of Federal Regulations that prohibits carrying
firearms while on property belonging to the United States Postal Service
(39 CFR § 232.1 [1]) against a challenge from a person with
a permit to carry a concealed weapon.
| |
Although the United States Postal Service (USPS) is an arm of
the government and not a private company, the Court noted:
| |
"As a government-owned business acting as a proprietor rather
than as a sovereign, the USPS has broad discretion to govern it business
operations according to the rules it deems appropriate. . . . [T]he
bans [on possession of firearms] struck down in Heller and McDonald
. . . regulated wholly private activity and applied to every citizen
within the respective jurisdictions. By contrast, the regulation challenged
here applies only to discrete parcels of land owned by the U.S. Postal
Service, and affects private citizens only insofar as they are doing
business with the USPS on USPS property. And the regulation is directly
relevant to the USPS's business objectives, which include providing
a safe environment for its patrons and employees."
| |
Bonidy, 790 F3d at 1126-27.
| |
Finally, this article is compatible with the federal statute
(18 U.S.C. § 930) that, with certain exceptions, bans the
possession of firearms within those buildings owned or leased by the
federal government where employees of the federal government are regularly
present for the purpose of performing their official duties.
| |
The Town Board, acting in its proprietary capacity as owner
of the Town buildings defined below, enacts the following ban on the
possession of firearms in those Town buildings.
|
(1):
|
Machine-gun
|
(3):
|
Firearm
|
(11):
|
Rifle
|
(12):
|
Shotgun
|
(15-a):
|
Electronic dart gun
|
(15-c):
|
Electronic stun gun
|
(20):
|
Disguised gun
|
(21):
|
Semiautomatic
|
(22):
|
Assault weapon
|