Six months after a controversially located gun store opened in the town/village of Harrison, Rye Brook has passed a law that restricts how and where a gun store can operate within its municipal borders, becoming the first municipality in Westchester County to do so.
On Tuesday, May 23, the village Board of Trustees decided by a 4-1 vote that gun stores in Rye Brook should be kept outside of a 500-foot radius of so-called “sensitive areas,” such as schools, nursery centers, playgrounds and religious centers.
“It’s certainly appropriate that the village look at our zoning to make sure potential gun shops are located in appropriate locations in the community,” said Chris Bradbury, Rye Brook’s village administrator, following the adoption of the law.
The aim to restrict gun stores from those sensitive areas comes as a reaction to the opening of a gun shop in Harrison, where residents became concerned over the shop’s proximity to an elementary school. L&L Sports on Halstead Avenue opened last November within 1000 feet of Parsons Memorial Elementary School, prompting residents to challenge why the Harrison Town Council did nothing to regulate the store’s location. An online petition gained 3,500 signatures asking the town to act; but the council has maintained that it has little immediate recourse.
Although there are no gun stores in Rye Brook, the village said it proposed and ultimately adopted this law as a proactive measure to have in place in case of a similar situation to the one that has evolved in neighboring Harrison.
The law also regulates some practices of a potential gun store, including storage, reporting, inspection, and who can be allowed into the premises. It specifies that no guns can be displayed in a shop’s windows, and must instead be kept behind a counter; when the store is closed, those weapons must be kept in a fireproof vault. The law also makes it illegal for an owner to admit anyone on the premises who is legally unable to purchase a firearm, including minors and convicted felons. The legislation also gives the village Police Department the authority to inspect each gun store in the village as frequently as every six months.
Rye Brook worked with the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a California-based nonprofit organization, in drafting the now adopted law. According to Laura Cutilletta, the legal director for the law center, the center has worked with nine separate communities in New York state to propose local gun ordinances.
Representatives from the law center have also worked with residents in Harrison. In March, Allison Anderman, a staff attorney for the law center, proposed a nine-part ordinance to the Harrison Town Council that she said had been proven legally defensible. During her presentation in March, she added that the law firm Kramer, Levin, Naftalis & Frankel said it would defend Harrison pro bono if the town were challenged on a law that was drafted within the guidelines of the law center.
Harrison officials have said that they are considering their options, but have not publically discussed a potential ordinance since March.
Harrison attorney Frank Allegretti and the Westchester County Firearms Owners Association, a Rye Brook-based community organization, could not be reached for comment as of press time.
