All about guns, legislation and politics in New York
Governor Cuomo has send out a 15-point candidate questionnaire to Democrats seeking his endorsement. One of the questions asks if the candidate supports the SAFE Act.
I have never heard of any elected official sending out a questionnaire to people requesting their endorsement before.
From The Resurgent, “Hillary Rodham Nixon Clinton, Because of Her Own Arrogance, Really May Lose“:
“Hillary Rodham Nixon Clinton may actually lose the election to Donald Trump. Why? Because she has operated as if the law does not apply to her and got caught … And if she wins, she’s going to be under investigation, stuck in congressional hearings, and buried under FBI leaks for four years. She’ll have no mandate and no legitimacy starting November 9th …”
From Kurt Schlichter, “Hey, What If Trump Actually Wins?“:
“… now we face a prospect only slightly less terrifying than Hillary slithering back into the Oval Office. It’s President Donald J. Trump, the guy whose entire appeal is based upon the fact that we, astonishingly, could do worse … beyond promising to MAGA, does anyone believe Trump has thought through the specifics? … In the off chance Trump wins, he’s almost certainly going to be terrible. But then, everyone (including me) said he could never get nominated, much less win. We might be surprised. Of course, it never hurts to hedge your bets, so buy ammo …”
NRA spends a lot of time focusing on the Supreme Court when in fact they only hear a very small number of the gun cases out there. The bulk of the action takes place at the local level where gun owners should focus most of their attention.
For example, the Buffalo News reports on the race for Eric County District Attorney between Joe Treanor and John Flynn:
“… Treanor called New York’s controversial restrictions on military-style rifles “inherently flawed” and said he would use prosecutorial discretion to avoid turning “otherwise law-abiding citizens into convicted felons.” Countered Flynn: “It is a dangerous path to take if you are out there as a district attorney making a determination on what laws are flawed.” He said he’ll enforce all laws on the books …”
Flynn’s statement is total B.S. There has to be prosecutorial discretion for no other reason then there simply aren’t the resources available to investigate and prosecute all matters which come before the D.A.’s office.
The choice here is clear.
Governor Cuomo has had a longstanding deal with the Senate Republicans helping them keep control of the upper chamber in exchange for them supporting his agenda.
There was no way this arrangement would continue forever:
“… Cuomo has taken an active role this year in his party’s bid for the state Senate, lending his presence to big-money fundraisers for Democratic candidates and offering himself up on the campaign trail. That’s a change from cycles past, when the Democratic governor largely stayed out of the fierce battle for the chamber as it teetered between a Republican and Democratic majority …”
Apparently Republicans thought it would, though:
“… Senate Republican Majority Leader John Flanagan punched back on Wednesday as Gov. Andrew Cuomo backs Senate Democrats’ efforts to retake the majority … “The Senate Democrat candidates have records of being investigated for corruption, hypocrisy and lying to the public, and of imposing massive tax hikes on hardworking New Yorkers,” Flanagan said. “It is disturbing that the Governor believes that the radical and extreme agenda backed by the Senate Democrats is the right one for the people of this state.” …”
Reminds me of this scene from The Empire Strikes Back:
With registered Democrats outnumbering Republicans in the state more than 2-1 and with less than half of the sitting Republican Senators representing Republican-majority districts, Senator Flanagan should keep this in mind.
A bunch of gun control groups including New Yorkers Against Gun Violence have endorsed Hillary.
From a practical standpoint this doesn’t mean much. It’s not like they’re providing her campaign with money and manpower. What they are doing is setting themselves up to claim some credit for her possible (probable) win on election day after which they will go around to Congress and state legislatures trying to use it to move their agendas.
Eric Schneiderman released a report saying most guns used in crimes come from out of state:
“… “The data makes one thing abundantly clear: New York’s strong gun laws are being undermined at every turn by lax laws in other states,” Schneiderman said. “Even as we work to make our streets safer, the illegal guns most often used in violent crimes continue to pour into our state.” …”
Then why don’t states like Virginia with “lax” gun laws have violent crime rates as high, or higher, than New York and specifically New York City does?
RRH Elections has a good rundown of state legislative races.
Some additional commentary:
With three serious candidates running, the open CD-22 seat is one of the more interesting races in the state. Here is a position statement on guns for each of the candidates from their last debate:
Martin Babinec: “If a gun is used in the commission of a crime, it should have really stiff penalties and keep those people off the streets … I’m a believer that we have to enforce our existing gun laws. And also the resource of things like the background checks and things that we have in place … so that it gets done properly.”
Kim Myers: “We can have responsible gun ownership in this country, we can absolutely protect the Second Amendment. I don’t really think that anyone is looking at repealing the Second Amendment. … I think both parties can come to agreement, simply no fly no buy, should someone who is on a terrorist watchlist buy a gun? I don’t think so … Universal background checks across state lines would be helpful as well.”
Claudia Tenney: “I voted against the SAFE Act, I think it was an unfair infringement against our Second Amendment rights … It is very important that we balance the issue of gun violence with our second amendment rights … What we need to do is root out a system that would determine that people … should not be carrying a weapon. We can also make sure that we prosecute an illegal gun crime.”
The Cook Political Report listed CD-22 as a “toss up” while latest polling gives Tenney an edge. Based upon her voting record, she is the best candidate for gun rights.
Here is the new anti-Hillary ad from the NRA:
I’m not impressed with this. While accurate, it is too dark and negative.
Hillary’s campaign released this ad:
I despise Hillary, but I like this one a lot, especially the part at 0:42. That is how The Donald should have been running his campaign from the start.