Newsbits

Thursday’s Newsbits:

Today at 6:00pm Assemblyman David Weprin will participate in Queens Borough President Melinda Katz’s Queens town hall meeting on gun control, Queens Borough Hall, 120-55 Queens Blvd., Queens.

Armed Citizen:

Jurisprudence:

Legislation:

NRA:

Politics:

S-6151 and S-6196 on Senate floor calendar

Senate bills S-6151, relates to the transport of pistols or revolvers by licensees, and S-6196, relates to possession of firearms on property owned by or held in trust for SUNY ESF, are on first report and have been placed on the floor calendar.

NSSF thinks Pothole Al is golden

The Post reports:

“While Gov. Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers debate a litany of issues before the Albany session adjourns on June 19, former GOP US Sen.-turned-powerhouse lobbyist Al D’Amato is co-chairing a “Long Island cocktail reception” fundraiser in Great Neck Sunday for the governor, The Post has learned. And he has also hit up his roster of 90 clients to kick in to Cuomo’s campaign kitty. “I’m doing something with a group of people for Gov. Cuomo, I will be a participant,” D’Amato told The Post …”

One of those 90 clients Park Strategies represents is the NSSF.

Years ago a former contract lobbyist convinced NSSF that their problems in New York stemmed from the fact that the legislature wasn’t hearing enough bullshit from NRA/NSSF and that they ought to hire a Albany-based PR firm to do it full time.  NSSF then retained Capitol Group and from 2011-18 threw hundreds of thousands of dollars at them.  Of course, they got nothing good from the legislature in return because PR isn’t the problem.

So starting this year NSSF switched to Park Strategies paying them $6000/month plus expenses, apparently thinking that having one of the sleaziest political figures in the state tell their bullshit to the legislature is going to pay off.  It will, for Al, when he cashes their monthly checks.  As for the firearms industry, they would get more action by dumping a bag of money off the balcony into the Well of the LOB than having Park Strategies on retainer.

Why bother?

I found this amusing nugget in City & State’s article, “The rise and fall of John Flanagan“:

“… Gun control activists were swarming [John] Flanagan’s office. He was on their list of elected officials to target on their lobbying visit to the state Capitol on a recent Tuesday afternoon. Yet no one seemed to recognize the lanky Long Islander as he slipped out the front door to his office down the hall from the Senate chamber. It was just minutes until the annual Police Officers Memorial begins across the street, and Flanagan was eager to keep up appearances. “I’ve got to pay my respects,” he said …”

With the Republicans in permanent minority status in the upper chamber there is no legitimate reason for gun control advocates, or any other activist group, to waste their time with Flanagan.  The GOP has no ability to advance or block legislation in the Senate.  They are a total non-factor in state government in large part due to milquetoast Flanagan’s “leadership.”

Legislature responds to lawsuit

Legislators know they are likely to lose the NYC transport lawsuit so they have prepared a response in the form of A-7752/S-6151.

From the Justification:

“Premise licenses for firearms in New York State allow a license holder to possess a firearm in a specific location, either their home or place of work, the address of which is specified on the license. Recognizing that premise license holders may have a legitimate reason to transport their firearms to another location, either another premise where they have a license to possess a firearm, a shooting range, or a shooting competition, this bill seeks to clarify the ability of premise license holders to transport their firearms to and from locations where they may legally possess such firearm. In order to ensure that any transportation of firearms that occurs is done safely and responsibly, this bill requires that, during transport, such firearms must be kept in a locked container separate from the ammunition.”

Bill text explicitly states, “The term “locked container” shall not include the glove compartment or console of a vehicle.”

As for non-City residents thinking about transporting a gun into the municipality:

“… [licenses] issued by a licensing officer other than the police commissioner of the City of New York shall not authorize transport of a pistol or revolver into the City of New York in the absence of written authorization to do so by the police commissioner of that city.”

“Ghost” guns bill passes Assembly

“Ghost” guns bill A-763A has been substituted for S-1414A in the lower chamber and and passed the Assembly this afternoon by a vote of 111-22.

Here is the press release by Speaker Carl Heastie.

The bill now heads to the Governor for signing.  No word as to when that will happen.

Newsbits

Monday’s Newsbits:

Jurisprudence:

NRA:

Politics:

“Ghost” guns bill passes Senate

“Ghost” guns bill S-1414A passed the Senate 53-5 on Wednesday with plenty of support by NRA endorsed Republicans.

Companion A-763A is still on the Assembly floor calendar.  I suspect round 3 of gun control legislation will come up in June as part of the celebration of “Gun Violence Awareness Month.”

A-663/S-5801, animal cruelty provisions

A-663, adds wildlife animals to those subject to the animal cruelty provisions, now has a Senate companion S-5801.

Despite what the justification statement says, the ultimate goal of this is to ban all hunting (even farming) as a form of cruelty to animals. The driving force behind this, Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, is a rabid animal “rights” activist, vegan and antigunner.