Rensselaer County, NY, District Attorney Joel Abelove issued a press release on Sept. 30 encouraging his assistants who want to carry a handgun to apply for a pistol license, and he said his office will pick up the cost of the application and required safety instruction.
“I’m not suggesting my staff has to arm themselves. I just wanted them to know I support them if they want to carry a gun,” Abelove said, according to the Albany-Times Union.
As a matter of security, the Office of Court Administration’s court officers, who are all armed, require that members of the public entering the building surrender their legal sidearms. They are stored in a gun safe until the person exits the building. However, prosecutors, judges, and members of law enforcement are not bound by that rule.
Abelove said he issued the statement in reaction to media accounts of Nassau County Acting District Attorney Madeline Singas announced policy for ADAs that banned them from carrying or even owning handguns while at work and even at home.
Her policy didn’t go down very well, so she changed it a few days later. The new policy said ADAs “are strictly prohibited from carrying or possessing a weapon any time they are working, including, but not limited to work in the DA’s office, courthouses, crime scenes, witness interviews and meetings with other agencies, without the express written permission of the District Attorney or the District Attorney’s authorized designee.” The ADAs are “permitted to own and possess a legally registered handgun in their homes or for legally permitted activity unrelated to their employment and workplace.”
Abelove, who has a handgun permit, is also a Judge Advocate General officer with the New York Army National Guard. Part of his campaign platform was opposition to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s SAFE Act, which put restrictions on gun ownership.
