Elect good judges

Residents are finding out the local St. Lawrence county pistol license law is largely worthless:

“A St. Lawrence County Court judge’s decision to deny requests for lifting restrictions on pistol permits has left county pistol owners in a tizzy.  Following a June 1, 14-1 vote by county legislators for a new local law that loosens rules regarding who is eligible to obtain an unrestricted carry-and-conceal pistol license, county pistol owners said they continue to be denied by County Court Judge Jerome J. Richards …”

That is because state law makes judges the local licensing authority, not the county legislature.  Unless granted home rule authority by the state legislature (which they weren’t), the county legislature does not have the authority to make up it’s own rules good or bad.  Judge Richards knows that and continues to do as he pleases.

I have received a bunch of complaints about him over the years and told those people their only choice is find an opponent and remove him when he’s up for re-election.  Instead, Richards ran unopposed last year for another 10 year term.