All about guns, legislation and politics in New York
Saturday’s Newsbits:
Jurisprudence:
Legislation:
NRA:
Politics:
The Daily News reports:
“A licensed gun owner who fatally shot a young man in a Brooklyn park in the dead of night claims he was acting in self defense after the 23-year-old victim tried to rob him at knife point, police sources said Tuesday. The shooter told detectives he was walking through Carroll Park on President St. near Smith St. in Carroll Gardens around 2:45 a.m. Saturday when Jordan Dillard put him in a chokehold, and with a knife to his neck, demanded he hand over cash, law enforcement sources told the Daily News. The two men fought until the would-be robbery victim, who has a concealed carry permit, whipped out a registered gun and shot the assailant in the torso. A knife was recovered at the scene; there’s no indication Dillard and the gunman knew each other, according to the sources. The Brooklyn District Attorney’s office is still investigating, but it is not believed the gunman will be charged in Dillard’s death, The News has learned …”
I don’t feel the need to waste a lot of time on the NRA’s internal follies. That is adequately covered elsewhere.
Ballots for voting members will go out this week in the February magazines and a number of incumbent directors are up for re-election.
All of them either actively participated in the malfeasance and management misadventures or passively stood by and let it happen. They pissed away more than $200 million on stupidity so egregious it will be talked about in business and law schools on how not to run a corporation. It will take a generation or more to recover. I have not seen the slightest bit of regret from any of them. I believe some are even proud of their actions.
There are plenty of newcomers willing to step up and try to rebuild the Association. Read their bios, ask them questions, and support those you feel are competent and ethically sound.
Everytown has not (yet) renewed their Albany lobbying contract with Ostroff Associates for the 2025-26 session.
Ken Jenkins has taken over as interim Westchester County Executive.
One of his first actions was to fully appoint members to the so-called Westchester County Gun Violence Prevention Taskforce.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say this taskforce will propose throwing money into warm and fuzzy sounding social programs with little oversight as well as endorsing whatever new gun control schemes the antis come up with.
A special election is set for February 11 to fill the remainder of George Latimer’s term.
Wednesday’s Newsbits:
Elections:
Jurisprudence:
Legislation:
Politics:
Gun control advocates endorsed Joe Biden back in ’23 when people thought he was still competent. They thought they had found their savior, a candidate who was unafraid to openly support their fringe agenda.
When he was pushed out they shifted their support to Kamala. She lost the election, but Biden still paid homage to them by giving a medal to Carolyn McCathy.
The gun control issue blew up in the face of advocates at election time as it always does. Not only was it a vote loser, the same people advocates assumed would support their position, are now exercising their 2A rights:
“Gay and transgender liberals around the country are arming themselves over perceived concerns they’ll be rounded up and placed in “concentration camps” under a second Trump administration … Although precise figures regarding LGBTQ gun ownership are tough to ascertain given the small cohort, the Liberal Gun Club told the outlet that it’s received “thousands” of firearms training requests since the election — more than in all of 2023 combined — and that about a quarter of them were from those in the LGBTQ community …”
No way any of them saw that coming.
Congresswoman Elise Stefanik is joining the incoming Trump administration which will trigger a special election sometime in the next few months.
Dan Stec has already declared his candidacy and Fox News has a breakdown of some of the other potential candidates from both parties. Stec and other Republicans Robert Smullen and Chris Tague would be fine from a 2A perspective as would Steve McLaughlin, although I don’t see him giving up his current job. They all have voting records to go on.
At this point I’m thinking Sticker Mule CEO Anthony Constantino would be the best choice. I’m not aware of his stance on gun rights, but I suspect he would be more aggressive in pushing the Trump agenda especially on gun rights than the others would.
“Scarsdale’s Tim Foley has announced his candidacy to represent us in the Westchester County Legislature. The term of long-time legislator Ben Boykin will expire and Foley will be on the ballot for the position in June 2025 … I helped take on the NRA to treat gun violence as the public health threat that it is …”