ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS 10)—Part of the new New York State gun laws recently passed following the Supreme Court’s ruling striking down New York’s concealed carry law has to do with locations where people cannot carry a concealed weapon. Those locations include parks.

Senator Dan Stec, who represents the North Country said he believes New York’s new gun legislation is unconstitutional.

“They’re making it a Class E felony to possess any firearm including rifles and shotguns in the Adirondack and Catskill parks,” stated Stec. “The Adirondacks park is 6 million acres, half of which is public property. The Catskill park, about 700,000 acres of public lands. So possessing any firearm on any of these public lands would make you a felon.”

He said it’s not uncommon for those who go hiking and camping to want to bring a firearm for personal safety.

Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik also weighed in on this new law and said in part, “ The unconditional bill goes on to define a ‘sensitive location shall mean public parks.’ This is a direct attack on the law-abiding and patriotic citizens of the North Country and Adirondack Park.”

According to the law, private businesses would have to show signage welcoming concealed carry in their establishments. Senator Stec said this will allow criminals to find soft target areas more easily.

“The idea that you’re presumed not to be able to lawfully carry unless a property owner demonstrates and gives you public permission, so now you’re walking along the street and some businesses will have signs in their windows saying you’re allowed to carry a weapon there and others will not. So guess what? Now the bad guy knows which businesses are safe for them to go rob and which ones maybe they’re not so safe.”

Republican lawmakers would like to see this legislation repealed, stating those with concealed carry permits usually don’t commit gun violence.

In her press conference on Friday, Governor Kathy Hochul said stricter gun legislation has proven to be beneficial.

“New York State has a small number, a small number— 5 per 100,000 of deaths from firearms. So how does that compare to other states? Mississippi has 28.6 deaths per 100,000, Louisiana 26 per 100,000… I can go on and on,” stated Hochul. “Those are the states that have minimal gun safety restrictions. Minimal compared to us, and what has happened? The whole argument that the more people who have weapons will stop the bad guys with a gun because the good guy has a gun, it doesn’t work. The data shows that that is a false argument.”