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Who cares
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Sponsors
6 Co-sponsors
History
- Held for consideration in codes
- Referred to codes
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
BILL NUMBER:A10051
Title of bill
An act to amend the general business law, in relation to the sale or promotional distribution of machetes; and to amend the penal law, in relation to including possession of a machete under the crime of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree
Purpose
To prohibit the sale of machetes to minors, and to include them specifically within the definition of a dangerous weapon.
Summary of specific provisions
Section one amends Section 399-qq of the General Business law to define a machete, and to prohibit their sale to persons under the age of eighteen. Section two amends Section 265.01 (2) of the Penal Law to define a machete as a dangerous weapon when possessed with intent to use unlawfully against another person.
Justification
Machetes are long heavy single bladed tools with a varie- ty of legitimate uses, including landscaping, brush clearance, camping, and trail clearance in the wilderness. In other lands they are quite common for agricultural purposes as well. There are a good many reasons why law abiding New Yorkers would wish to purchase and possess a machete. Sadly, this tool is capable of use as a weapon, and a horrify- ingly effective one at that.
Machetes are usable as essentially a short sword, and their sharp heavy blades are fully capable of chopping off a limb or even decapitating a person with a single stroke. Even worse, criminal gangs such as MS 13 have taken note of the fact that machetes are not only deadly but cheap, unrestricted, and offered for sale at most any home center or outdoor supply store. As a weapon of intimidation the machete is a terrifying piece of hardware, well suited to intimidation and extortion given its ability to disfigure as well as killing. Further, according to some reports gangs in Brooklyn have now started to poison their machetes, just to make sure that a wound is eventually fatal even if the initial injury was not itself lethal. In October 2009 a gang of teenagers killed a young New Hampshire mother and grievously wounded her 11 year old daughter with a machete, and in January 2010 the suspect charged stated his regret that the girl survived. That same month a 15 year old teen in Orange county New York was charged with planning a Columbine- style attack at the Monroe-Woodbury High School.
The legislature reasonably banned the sale of box cutters to minors in 2005, and it seems more than logical that these far more deadly instru- ments be treated identically. There is simply no valid reason to allow a minor to purchase such an instrument on their own.
Prior legislative history
New Bill
Fiscal implications
None
Effective date
Immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.