‘Pic’-ing up Amish cause

Pol pushes gun-license photo exemption for faith

Those cute Amish buggies may soon be packing heat.

A bill introduced by state Sen. Catharine Young, an upstate Republican, would exempt the Amish, Mennonites and other religious sects from a state regulation requiring that gun owners’ photos be included in applications for weapons permits.

“Currently, members of the Amish and Mennonite communities are unable to possess pistols or revolvers in New York without violating the tenets of their religion by submitting to the taking of a photograph which would also be used for identification purposes,’’ Young said in a memo attached to her bill.

The document explains that the groups are already exempt from other government laws, including labor practices, because of their faith.

The Amish, who proudly calls themselves the “plain people,” will get special treatment in the gun-permitting process if the bill passes the Legislature next year.

Most Amish groups shun many of the basics of the modern world — TV, computers and owning an automobile.

The Amish ban photos because they might cultivate personal vanity, which runs against the church’s prohibition of “hochmut,” a word meaning pride, arrogance and/or haughtiness, according to the Young Center in Lancaster, Pa.

Amish Country News acknowledges that “it is indeed ironic that a group of people who wish not to be photographed are perhaps the most photographed ethnic group in America!”

The bill leaves it up to licensing examiners to review affidavits for the photo exemption and confirm that the person requesting it is a member of an “established sect” that shuns photos.

Only Amish and Mennonites are named in the senator’s bill — many of whom reside in her western New York district.

New York has an Amish population of 18,575, according to the Young Center, and has seen a large influx of members of the faith.

The Amish have fought the photo requirements, with one even filing a lawsuit over it in Pennsylvania.

Ohio and Pennsylvania have the largest number of Amish in the nation.