Gov. Kathy Hochul and Democrats in the state Legislature should be quite proud of themselves for their Concealed Carry Improvement Act.

It’s doing a bang-up job keeping the people of Chautauqua County safe from those horrible people who want to purchase shotgun shells — like their elected and well-respected sheriff.

That’s right. A law that’s supposed to keep firearm ammunition from falling into the wrong hands is also keeping ammunition from getting into the right hands. Quattrone recently tried to purchase ammunition for a fundraiser trap and skeet shoot. His background check took 25 hours to complete.

Set aside the inanity of the background check taking 25 hours in the first place. How in the world does someone in the law enforcement realm not realize that the Chautauqua County Sheriff is OK to purchase ammunition? That’s a good question. Here’s a better question. If it took 25 hours to decide that our county sheriff would pass a background check to purchase ammunition, how long will it take someone else?

And that’s why the Gov. Kathy Hochul needs to end the state’s ridiculous background check on ammunition purchases included in the state Legislature’s much-ballyhooed Concealed Carry Improvement Act. The act’s tax on ammunition is bad enough, but until the State Police can complete a background check on a well-respected sheriff in less than a day, the background check has to be set aside.

There are several legislative proposals — from both sides of the political aisle — to amend the Concealed Carry Improvement Act. We opined on one by Assemblyman Joe Angelino, R-Norwich, recently that would allow those who already carry a pistol permit or who have earned a semi-automatic rifle endorsement to purchase ammunition without the background check, though they would still have to pay the state’s ammunition tax. Angelino reasons those who have already been through the required background checks shouldn’t have to go through them again to purchase ammunition.

We thought Angelino’s proposal made sense a couple of weeks ago. It makes even more sense now. If Sheriff Jim Quattrone can’t buy ammunition without waiting 25 hours for his background check to be completed, what chance does anyone else have?