Candidates for 2017 City Elections

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Gotham Gazette is keeping track of this year’s candidates for NYC elections.

There is some material here of interest to gun voters.

Mayor

Among the Democrat candidates, the order of preference is:

  1. Anyone not Bill de Blasio.
  2. Anyone not Tony Avella. He voted for the SAFE Act.

Public Advocate

Anyone not Letitia James, who has a history of gun control advocacy.

Comptroller

Anyone not Scott Stringer. Assemblyman Dan Quart would be a tiny improvement in so far as he sponsored a knife-rights bill.

Bronx Borough President

Anyone not Ruben Diaz, Jr..

Brooklyn District Attorney

Challenger Vincent Gentile has a history of gun control activism.

City Council District 9

Incumbent Bill Perkins won the seat in a special election earlier this year. He voted for the SAFE Act.

City Council District 13 – open seat

Assemblyman Mark Gjonaj voted for the SAFE Act, but against a mandatory storage bill.

City Council District 18 – open seat

Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr. voted for the SAFE Act even though he admitted on the floor that it would have no impact on crime.

City Council District 43

Assemblyman Peter Abatte voted for the SAFE Act.

City Council District 51

Incumbent Joe Borelli voted against the SAFE Act and has made 2A supportive statements in the past. Legitimately pro-gun. Unclear at the moment if he will face a challenger.

Political theatre

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Legislation has been introduced to limit the SAFE Act to New York City:

The bill A-6140/S-879C is going nowhere.

First and foremost, it would require Governor Cuomo to sign it thereby admitting he was wrong. That is never going to happen especially considering he still has delusions of running for President in 2020.

Second, the Republicans are treating guns as a partisan, ideological issue, not a civil right. With Republicans and Conservatives making up ~25% of registered voters, and Democrats making up roughly 53%, they cannot pass legislation without buy-in from the Democrats. They do not have that.

Gun control exploitation FAIL

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The Donald gave an hour long address to Congress last night.  Here is the text.

It would have been nice if Trump used the time to promote the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, but gun control was not mentioned.

Nancy Pelosi thought that she could use this as an opportunity to promote gun control by bringing two antigun activists as guests.

This, along with other Democrat stunts, blew up in their faces. See:

Insurance liability bill

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Félix Ortiz has been introducing this bill for years and it always dies. No company would write such a policy to cover illegal actions by a policy holder. It’s more of a public relations stunt as Ortiz is the sole sponsor.

Current bill is A-2260. A similar (not companion) bill is S-2857.

Reed co-sponsors H.R. 38

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Congressman Tom Reed has added his name as co-sponsor to H.R. 38 bringing the total to seven from New York.

Manhattan D.A. Cyrus Vance is not happy about the bill.

Neither is NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill.

Astornio holds the line

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Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino continued to defend gun shows at a town hall meeting in White Plains yesterday:

“… Astorino defended vetoing county legislation that would have banned gun shows on county property, like one recently held at the County Center in White Plains. He said the gun show’s attendees were unfairly stigmatized …”

Good for him.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Republicans could learn a lot from Astorino (and Lee Zeldin) on how to handle gun issues in the NYC suburbs. They need to stop paying attention to their crap internal polling and see how the public acts and votes on the issue.

S. 446 introduced

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Senator John Cornyn introduced S. 446 yesterday as a companion to Congressman Richard Hudson’s Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017, H.R. 38.

The Daily Caller reports that Cornyn is looking for Democrats to co-sponsor his bill, but I would not hold out much hope for that.  Hudson’s bill currently has 160 sponsors with only two Democrats.  The Party seems determined to obstruct any and all of the GOP agenda regardless of how popular it is.  Mitch McConnell should schedule a vote on the bill A.S.A.P. and squash any lame attempts to filibuster it without actually having to stand on the floor and speak in opposition.  Now would be a good time to do it too as Chuck Schumer seems to have lost his mojo after The Donald called him “head clown.”  He’s not acting nearly as bad as I thought he would be.

New Yorkers take over DNC

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Buffalo native Tom Perez has been elected DNC Chairman.

With Queens Congresswoman Grace Meng and Bronx Assemblyman Michael Blake being elected DNC Vice Chairs and having Charles Schumer as Senate Minority Leader, it is safe to say that New York is the new face of the Democrat Party.

That’s fucking hilarious!

While I don’t believe Perez has the same ties to the local political machine the others do, his election appears to have upset the hard Left who see him as being part of the (losing) Clinton/Obama establishment.  This means the image the Democrats want to put forward is that of stale, big city politicos who are out of touch with their base and with middle America.

Outstanding.

Hopefully this will keep them in disarray and we can get the reciprocity bill through Congress.

Please be true

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Some rumormongering from Ted Cruz:

“Sen. Ted Cruz predicted Thursday that there will be another vacancy on the Supreme Court later this year but provided no explanation for why he believes that is likely to happen. Cruz (R-Tex.) also appeared to suggest that a departure of one of justices from the liberal wing of the court would trigger the opening …”

Considering half the Court looks like death warmed-over this would not be a surprise.

If true, it would be a huge opportunity for gun rights.

Maryland AWB upheld

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The 4th Circuit Court has upheld Maryland’s “assault weapons” ban.

I’m not surprised given that the 2nd Circuit Court upheld the SAFE Act back in 2015.  What we really need is for a good, clear decision from SCOTUS on this.  I do not know if the Maryland decision will be appealed or even if it is the best case to be appealed.