Republican Sen. Phil Boyle, who voted in favor of January’s gun control law, now says he would have voted against the measure if he had been given more time to read it.

The Long Island lawmaker, a freshman who replaced longtime Sen. Owen Johnson, has signed on to a bill that would repeal the major provisions of the law.

In a news release this afternoon, Boyle said that he made a mistake voting yes and is working to fix it.

“The so-called SAFE act was a mistake. Its passage lacked transparency and public input and its wording was ill-conceived and of questionable legality,”  Boyle said in a statement. “Lawmakers like myself might have
caught these mistakes if we were given more than two hours to read the bill. A good leader admits a mistake and works to rectify it. That is what I am doing.”

Boyle had initially said after the vote that he would begin to introduce amendments to the law, including an exemption for law enforcement, but those proposals are yet to be released.

The move comes after a large pro-gun rights rally was held in Albany on Thursday pushing to repeal the law.

Even with some in the Senate looking to repeal it, overturning the law legislatively is highly unlikely given the wide Democratic majority in the Assembly and Gov. Andrew Cuomo not signing it.

Still, legal challenges to the gun control law are being made and advocates hope the courts are the best way to overturn it.

“We owe it to our constituents to start over and give fair and open consideration to the issues of public safety and Second Amendment rights. While several provisions of the NY SAFE Act were well intentioned, it is evident now that the law violates the Second Amendment while not providing the right measures to protect against another tragedy like Newtown,” Boyle said. “That is why I am cosponsoring legislation that implements more thoughtful, common-sense reforms to make our communities safer while also protecting the Constitutional Rights of law-abiding citizens.”

Sen. Kathy Marchione, R-Halfmoon, introduced a bill late yesterday to overturn the law’s new ban on assault weapons and limitations on rounds in a high-capacity magazines, along with some of the registration and mental health provisions.

Eighteen Republicans vote against the SAFE Act in the Senate, while most of the so-called “Long Island nine” voted yes — a signal at the time that suggested an upstate-downstate split in the conference. Sen. Lee Zeldin of Suffolk County was not present for the vote, but says he would have voted no.

 

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