Congress has voted to repeal Obama’s Social Security gun rule.
The House passed their bill a couple weeks ago and the Senate followed suit yesterday.
Last minute whining by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance was ignored.
NYC mayoral candidates
Bill de Blasio is up for re-election this year.
AMNewYork has a listing of currently declared candidates. de Blasio will almost certainly be in a Democrat primary against multiple opponents. I expect there will be a GOP primary as well.
The only candidate right now that I find interesting is Republican businessman Paul Massey. I don’t know what his position on 2A is and, from a purely practical standpoint, it doesn’t matter. With a huge Democrat enrollment advantage any Republican running would need access to an equally huge source of money. Massey does seem to be making some inroads in that area. See, “Better call Paul: Massey adding muscle to mayoral campaign” and “Massey Beats Out Mayor With $1.6M in Campaign Funds Raised in 6 Months, Spends Even Bigger.“
Togetherness
I have said before if the Senate Democrats put their egos aside, they would control the upper chamber and that would be the end of the Republicans. With Trump in office there is increasing pressure for the mainline Democrats and IDC to kiss and make up:
“… Members of the rogue Independent Democratic Conference in the New York State Senate are finally feeling the heat for cozying up to Republicans, as heightened awareness of the fragility of progressive policy gains has New Yorkers demanding bold action from local legislators … Since it first formed in 2010, the IDC has been the object of enormous frustration for mainline Democrats, who have consistently argued that it has only bolstered the power of what has long been a narrow Republican majority in the Senate …”
This is true.
It’s also true that enough Democrats including Governor Cuomo want it this way because the mainline conference is full of clowns.
Diane Savino says if the Democrats want unity they need real leadership:
“… “If the Democrats really wanted to unite the Senate Democratic Conference they would make Jeff Klein the chair,” said Savino, one of the IDC founding members.. “He is the only one who knows how to raise money, has chips to negotiate with the Assembly, Senate and the governor, has the legislative track record that rivals anybody in public office, and knows how to protect marginal members and win races. Over and over city members felt that city issues were more important and put the rural and suburban members at risk … They [Senate Democratic Conference] are dismissive of areas even in the city like Staten Island where I come from. They make like we should be cut off and float away to the sea. And they’re that way to South Brooklyn, too,” she added …”
This is true.
It’s also true that Klein & Company are almost as bad as the mainline Democrats in this regard pushing gun control crap like microstamping, then the SAFE Act, which are wildly unpopular outside the City and have negligible real support in the City.
This bears watching to see if something like reciprocity becoming law pushes the state Democrats together.
Cultural Libertarianism and Gun Culture 2.0
A few years back the term “Gun Culture 2.0” started to appear basically to describe the new generation of gun owners. I think it is part of a broader shift towards cultural libertarianism that can be seen in how antigun activists are now treated by gunnies. Twenty years ago they were viewed as simply being ignorant about guns, but through education could come over to our side. Now they are routinely mocked and laughed at with #ShannonWattsTantrum being a good example.
Here is a video by Paul Joseph Watson describing how conservatism/cultural libertarianism, which Gun Culture 2.0 is a subset of, has become the new counter-culture to the progressive/gun control establishment:
Let’s make a deal
Mark Cuban suggests Senate Democrats try to make a deal with Trump over Neil Gorsuch:
3)Trump would love to say he beat the system by making a deal. Gives him bragging rights. “Never been done before”
He isn’t a politician.— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) February 1, 2017
This is one of the reasons I didn’t vote for Trump, the possibility of him cutting deals because he lacks a philosophic commitment to limited government. I don’t see that happening right now for a couple of reasons:
- Democrats have not yet come to grips as to why Hillary lost.
- The leftwing base is going apeshit and would not tolerate any sort of deal.
- Trump is pissed at Democrats for obstructing his cabinet appointments.
This being said, depending upon how the political winds blow, I would not rule out either the Democrats or Trump deal-making should there be another opening on SCOTUS.
More motivation for reciprocity
The latest outrage:
Connecticut Gov. Malloy proposing HUGE increase in pistol permit costs (initial permit from $140 to $370 and renewals from $70 to $300)
— NSSF (@NSSF) February 8, 2017
I’ve had a non-resident CT license for years. There’s no way I’m paying this.
Surprise from ATF
The #2 official at ATF has written a proposal to reduce gun regulations, including removing silencers from the NFA.
It isn’t an official position statement by the ATF, just one persons opinion, but it should be helpful in generating support for the Hearing Protection Act of 2017, H.R. 367.
The bill now has two local sponsors with Lee Zeldin adding his name last week.
House votes to revoke Obama gun rule
The House voted yesterday to revoke a rule put in place by the Obama administration last year banning certain Social Security recipients who use a representative payee from owning firearms.
The New York contingent voted as follows: All the Democrats except Nydia Velazquez who was excused along with Republicans Dan Donovon and Pete King voted NO. All the other Republicans voted YES.
Bill numbers are H.J. Res 40 and S.J. Res 14.
Trump nominates Gorsuch to SCOTUS
The Donald nominated Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.
While he has not directly ruled on a Second Amendment case, he has made supportive statements in the past.
Bloomberg’s proxy Everytown has started a petition asking Senators grill Gorsuch on gun control.
The Left is losing their collective minds over the nomination and pretty much everything else Trump has done thus far. Most amusing was the several thousand protestors gathered outside Chuck Schumer’s apartment chanting, “What the fuck, Chuck?!” The Post was extremely helpful in printing his home address.
H.R. 367
H.R. 367, the Hearing Protection Act of 2017 has picked up one co-sponsor from New York, Rep. Chris Collins.
Senate companion is S. 59.