Erie County 12- and 13-year-olds will not be allowed to hunt deer with a firearm like other kids their age across the U.S., after County Executive Mark Poloncarz vetoed a new law and the county Legislature failed to overturn the veto this week.
New York state is the only state in the country to not allow kids aged 12 and 13 to hunt big game, like deer and bears, with a firearm and crossbow, but this year’s state budget allowed counties to opt in to permitting it. Every county north of Rockland and Westchester counties has chosen to opt in.
The Erie County Legislature voted 6-4 to opt in last month, but county Executive Mark Poloncarz vetoed it on Monday. In his veto letter, Poloncarz said there’s an “inherent danger to expanding firearm access to our youth.”
“Neither myself, nor any future county executive, should ever have to read a child fatality report regarding the accidental death of a twelve- or thirteen-year-old child because this law went into effect under my signature,” Poloncarz wrote.
However, Minority Leader Joseph Lorigo argued the law would not expand firearm access to children. He noted children aged 12 and 13 are already permitted under state law to use firearms for hunting small game.
“It is not changing their access to any particular type of weapon. It merely changes their access for which type of game they’re hunting,” said Lorigo, a Conservative, before the Legislature on Thursday. “They could go out and hunt squirrels, pheasants, and turkeys with the same type of weapon that they cannot go out and hunt deer and bear with today.”
After a motion by Democratic Legislator John Gilmour to overturn Poloncarz’s veto, the Legislature voted 6-5 to overturn the veto. However, it needed eight votes.
Poloncarz argued in his veto letter that there have been “many unfortunate firearm hunting accidents across the state and country, especially those involving youth hunters.” Lorigo called the number of hunting accidents “statistically insignificant.”
There were 22 hunting accidents in the state last year, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation. Only one involved a child aged 12 or 13: a 13-year-old shot his father in the head and upper body while hunting small game in Steuben County.
Poloncarz also noted he reads all fatality reports involving children in the county, including those that have died of a shooting.
“Each report is gut-wrenching, knowing that a young vibrant child’s life was taken, often in a circumstance that was wholly preventable,” he wrote.
The county’s most recent child shooting death, while not specifically mentioned in Poloncarz’s letter, was 3-year-old Shaquelle Walker Jr., who died in a shooting at a Fourth of July weekend neighborhood fireworks display in Buffalo. Two people have since been charged in his murder.
Lorigo said the recent spike in gun violence seen locally and across the country should not be conflated with hunting accidents.
“Gun violence is its own issue and we should have those discussions and figure out ways that we can help curb it,” he said. “But hunting is not the same as gun violence.”
Legislator Tim Myers, a Democrat, was the only legislator opposed to overturning the veto to explain his vote on the floor. He said he had many “hang ups” with the law, but was particularly concerned it would increase the number of people out big game hunting and potentially lead to more accidents
“What is the difference of hunters in the woods from small game hunting to large game hunting? That number is huge,” he said. “There's a lot more people in the woods and I think it opens up the door to possible accidents.”
Lorigo said the law would have taught children “proper gun and hunting etiquette” and made them safer hunters in the future.
“Instead, the county executive took his own political agenda of anti-firearm and anti-hunting and vetoed a law that had majority support,” he said.
