It’s not too late to recertify New York state pistol permits due to expire Wednesday at midnight.
At last report, just over one-third of potentially more than 15,000 pistol permit holders in Cattaraugus County had recertified with New York State Police. Similar percentages are reported in counties across the state.
“It’s still less than half,” Cattaraugus County Clerk Alan Bernstein said Monday, two days before the deadline he’s likened to a ”nightmare.”
What about the thousands of pistol permit holders who have not registered by Wednesday night’s deadline?
For months, Trooper James O’Callaghan, public information officer for Troop A based in Batavia, has been publicizing the upcoming deadline for pistol permit holders who received their permits before Jan. 15, 2013. The recertification is included in the SAFE Act legislation.
“State police won’t press criminal charges with permit holders who unknowingly did not recertify,” O’Callaghan said.
Those wishing to recertify electronically should visit www. firearms.troopers.ny.gov/pprecert/ and follow the instructions.
“We’ve done our best” to remind people of the deadline, O’Callaghan said Monday. “They can do it online and get an almost immediate response.”
To recertify using paper copies sent through the mail can take four to eight weeks to show up in the database.
“We’re working to the best of our ability to get the word out,” O’Callaghan said, adding that one of the most important things is to make sure the address is correct on the certification.
“People are still coming into state police barracks to check on their status,” O’Callaghan said. Often, the recertification is still being processed and is not in the system yet.
Bo Duffy, director of public information for New York State Police in Albany, said state police “can’t change the deadline. That has to be done legislatively.”
The main benefit of the recertification, Duffy said, is the database of pistol permit holders grandfathered under the SAFE Act.
He underscored that the policy of state police was not to criminally charge permit holders “if unknowingly they did not recertify. We want to make sure that everyone has a chance to renew after the deadline.”
At stake statewide are an estimated 1 million pistol permits, not including those in New York City, Long Island and Westchester County, which handle local pistol permits.
“We don’t know the exact number,” Duffy said. “We don’t know how many are active (pistol) permits.”
That is expected to become clearer as state police assemble the county-by-county database. Until the SAFE Act, county sheriffs and county clerks issued pistol permits and kept track of the handguns on each one.
Once completed, a process that could take up to a year, the new database will be sent to county clerks and sheriffs for comparison, Duffy said.
Some of the permits that are not recertified are connected to people who are deceased, those who reside out of state for part of the year or who have moved from the state.
Duffy said state police expect the pace of recertifications will pick up this week as the deadline nears. Since November, between 1,000 and 2,000 individual pistol permit holders were recertified each day.
“We’re ready for a large number this week,” Duffy said.
That leaves between one-half and one-third of permit holders who have not recertified.
“More people are doing it online,” Duffy said, noting that those who recertify on printed forms and mail them may not show up as recertified for months.
Cattaraugus County Sheriff Timothy Whitcomb on Monday renewed his plea from last week that those pistol permit holders who have not recertified do so as soon as possible.
“No matter how you feel about the SAFE Act, get online now and recertify,” Whitcomb said.
The sheriff said he expects state police will evaluate the recertification process before developing a strategy to deal with the difference between recertification lists and county pistol permit holders.
(Contact reporter Rick Miller at rmiller@oleantimesherald.com. Follow him on Twitter, @RMillerOTH)
