Month: July 2009

But he’s a celebrity

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Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau actually wants ex-Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress in jail for illegally carrying in NYC. According to today’s Post:

“… Negotiations in the gun-possession case against ex-Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress — who accidentally shot himself in the leg at a Midtown nightclub last November — fell apart earlier this year after prosecutors insisted he do two years’ state time on a plea to a lesser gun charge, the DA told The Post. The Super Bowl XLII star was willing to bite the bullet and do jail time, but he wouldn’t agree to more than a year, the DA said …”

Whether Morgenthau carries through on this remains to be seen. New York is known to pooh-pooh away gun charges against celebrities.

Burress’ stupidity in carrying a Glock stuffed into the waisteband cannot be understated.  Because of the safety lever on the trigger, Glocks need holsters which cover the trigger guard to prevent ADs like this from happening.

Microstamping is a waste of money

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The Observer-Dispatch published an op-ed by Oneida Co. assistant pistol license clerk Dan Sullivan in today’s paper. He makes some good points:

“… Pistol license holders are not killing people. In my 10 years in the pistol license office, there has been one pistol license holder that committed murder with a handgun: Jiverly Wong of Binghamton was the first. With the vast majority of pistol license holders being middle-class working men and women, what is the political logic of more anti-business, anti-rights, anti-gun laws that will lead to a reduction in sales tax and, quite frankly, do not work? What is bizarre is that New York has already tried this with its current ballistic testing law that requires all new guns sold in this state to be ballistic tested … The theory behind this legislation when it was passed was that if we find the lead and casing in or near the body of the victim, we can catch the killer. Tens of thousands of handguns have been tested to the tune of millions of state tax dollars per year. Killers caught? Zero! The law is so bad the state of Maryland repealed it shortly after it was passed …”

The response I’ve given when asked about microstamping, renewable licenses, etc. is to say that if New York wants to do something about crime they ought to require background checks for the state legislature as they are much more likley to commit crimes than pistol license holders. According to last month’s op-ed by Bill Hammond in the Daily News, we’re up to 18 state officials charged since 2003.

Results from .50 cal shoot

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Marc Diana’s report on the Fort Drum .50 cal shoot is up at the NRA Blog. Marc was also looking into the possibility of having another .50 shoot in the Binghamton area sometime.

NY law is not arbitrary

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Middletown Mayor Marlinda Duncanson is happy the Thune amendment came up short in the Senate.  She told MidHudsonNews.com:

“… Duncanson said New York’s gun carry laws include provisions that are not covered by the laws of a number of other states and those standards are “by no means arbitrary calculations, but rather are derived from issues such as population density in parts of the state, our particular crime dynamics, and expert local judgment regarding how to protect our citizens.” …”

That’s true, they’re not arbitrary. The Sullivan Law was designed specifically to allow politicans to deny anyone they deemed undesireable the right to legally carry handguns for self-defense.  The Irish and Jewish mobsters running Tammany Hall at the turn of the 20th century did not want to compete with the new immigrant Italian mafiosi so they had their boy State Senator “Big” Tim Sullivan create the current “may issue” system of discretionary pistol licensing.  This law has been used by politicans for nearly a century to screw over anyone they didn’t like.  In Big Tim’s case, it was the Italians.  In Duncanson’s case, it’s ordinary citizens.

News of the day

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Newsday reports, “McCarthy: Back surgery deterred me from Senate race .”  I call BS on that.

Manhattan District Attorney candidate Richard Aborn declares “A Narrow Victory” on the Thune reciprocity amendment failing 58-39 in the Senate.  Incumbent Queens District Attorney Richard Brown called it “a major victory for New Yorkers.” I don’t consider this a failure for gunnies.  The issue has been gathering steam for years and this is another positive step forward.

PolitickerNY observers, “The Anti-Gun Schumer Returns.”  When did he ever leave?

1st Post

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After blogging at the R&P website for several years I decided to get my own domain.  The format will be the same.  News and commentary on gun issues pertaining to New York.  Whatever I find interesting.