Buffalo mayoral race

On: By: admin

Byron Brown has announced his intention to run for another term as Mayor of Buffalo.

Although Brown’s record in the State Senate was poor, he has largely avoided gun issues as Mayor except for some focus on “illegal” guns.  Examples include:

Notably, Brown did not come out in support of the SAFE Act and that may have cost him the Lt. Governor’s spot.

Brown faces a likely primary challenge from Comptroller Mark Schroeder.  Schroeder has a positive record of supporting 2A during his time in the State Assembly.

Candidates for Nassau Co. Exec.

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With incumbent Ed Mangano having problems, Democrats are hoping to pick-up the Nassau County Executive’s seat this fall.

So far, three names have surfaced:

  1. Nassau Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs is supporting Legislator Laura Curran (D-Baldwin).  She supports a New Yorkers Against Gun Violence mandatory firearms storage proposal for the county.
  2. Assemblyman Charles Lavine has the backing of the Assembly Democrat Leadership.  Lavine has a long record of supporting antigun legislation in Albany.
  3. County Comptroller George Maragos. Does not have a record on the issue that I’m aware of.

Assuming Mangano does not run for another term, possible Republican candidates include:

  1. Former State Senator Jack Martins. Voted for the SAFE Act and ran for Congress last year as the gun control candidate.
  2. Hempstead Town Councilman Bruce Blakeman. A perpetual candidate who has run several times for higher office and lost each time.
  3. Hempstead Tax Receiver Donald Clavi. I have nothing on him.

A largely uninspiring bunch of people.

Congress repeals Obama gun rule

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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

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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

On: By: admin

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

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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

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Mark Cuban suggests Senate Democrats try to make a deal with Trump over Neil Gorsuch:


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:

  1. Democrats have not yet come to grips as to why Hillary lost.
  2. The leftwing base is going apeshit and would not tolerate any sort of deal.
  3. 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

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The latest outrage:

I’ve had a non-resident CT license for years. There’s no way I’m paying this.

Surprise from ATF

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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

On: By: admin

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.