makes it illegal to ship pepper spray<\/a> to anyone in the Empire State, and the self-defense devices are only currently allowed to be peddled by licensed gun shops and pharmacies.<\/p>\nA bipartisan bill sponsored by state Sen. Jessica Scarcella-Spanton (D-Staten Island) and Assemblymember Chris Eachus (D-Orange) would eliminate the ban on shipping pepper spray and open up sales to other businesses.<\/p>\n
State legislators are pushing to legalize shipping pepper spray to New Yorkers from out of state and opening up sales to more retailers. New Africa \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s just a very simple non-lethal safety measure,\u201d Scacella-Spanton told The Post.<\/p>\n
She said it doesn\u2019t make sense these days that current laws make it harder to obtain legal pepper spray.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is just to make it a little bit easier so people have a way to protect themselves when they\u2019re out and about,\u201d the Staten Island pol said of the bill.<\/p>\n
The proposed law would allow the New York State Police to fine-tune regulations about how pepper spray is sold but also would stipulate that it can be shipped to people in the state by online retailers.<\/p>\n
It would prohibit sales to people younger than 18 and to anybody with a felony record.<\/p>\n
Staten Island state Sen. Jessica Scarcella Spanton is sponsoring a bill that would loosen restrictions on pepper spray. Brigitte Stelzer for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want to have this in the hands of kids, but we want to make sure that adults who are out and about feel safer when they\u2019re out,\u201d Scarcella-Spanton said.<\/p>\n
Eachus added, \u201cI\u2019ve heard from numerous folks, not just women, but numerous folks that say that\u2019s great because some people have a fear of getting on subways, have a fear getting on trains, have a fear of being in crowded places. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd even though they won\u2019t use the pepper spray, perhaps just having it right there with them makes them feel a lot more secure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under current law, only licensed gun dealers and pharmacists can legally sign up with the state police to sell pepper spray \u2013\u00a0something that would be scrapped under the new policy.<\/p>\n
The proposed law would allow the New York State Police to fine-tune regulations about how pepper spray is sold but also would stipulate that it can be shipped to people in the state by online retailers. Creative Cat Studio \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n
Assemblyman John McDonald (D-Albany), a licensed pharmacist who cosponsored the bill, said it makes sense to open up sales.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can tell you that pharmacies are not fighting to keep their turf when it comes to pepper spray,\u201d McDonald told The Post.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear what, if any, resistance the measure may face this year. The bill has never advanced beyond committee.<\/p>\n
State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Westchester) was unfamiliar with the issue when asked about the matter at an unrelated press conference earlier this year but didn\u2019t express resistance to addressing it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have not had any conversation about pepper spray,\u201d the Democratic leader said at the time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALBANY \u2013 New York\u2019s baffling laws restricting the sale of pepper spray would be loosened under a bipartisan…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":692298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[20184,5229,4219,5248,405,403,24102,182858,5226,5225,5228,5227,78513,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":["post-692297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-albany","tag-america","tag-crime","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-state-assembly","tag-new-york-state-senate","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-pepper-spray","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-us-news","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116317862342642537","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}