Last Tuesday night (Aug. 19), 8-10 signs calling for the repeal of the NY SAFE Act were stolen from front yards on South Meadow Drive in North Tonawanda.
The Repeal the SAFE Act signs have become a common sight across New York since the law passed in January of 2013. The strictest gun control law in the nation is opposed by 52 county legislatures, the New York State Sheriff's Association, the New York State Association of County Clerks, and by ordinary people who put up lawn signs calling for the repeal of the law.
North Tonawanda Mayor Robert Ortt said, "It is shameful and sad that someone should try to limit people's First Amendment rights, regarding their support for the Second Amendment…. It is my hope that the North Tonawanda Police will find this individual, or individuals, and apprehend them in short order".
This is not the first incident of the theft of people's SAFE ACT lawn signs. In November 2013, police arrested Dr. Annamaria Kontor, 46, of Penfield for petit larceny, after she was observed stealing a "Repeal S.A.F.E. Act" sign from a yard in Williamson. It was later learned Dr. Kontor, a pediatrician, was responsible for the theft of numerous signs in the area. In September, Jonathan Gibson of Mahopac, N. Y., caught a local policeman on camera stealing his sign.
The North Tonawanda Police Department advises citizens who wish to file a formal complaint about their signs being stolen to call 716-692-4111.
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