Gun bills failing in the House

Democrats are continuing their efforts to get a gun control bill voted on in the HouseTheir proposals appear DOA and in no small part due to the shameless idiocy the antigunners have resorted to.

Example #1: Senator Portrait Project

New Yorkers Against Gun Violence spokeswoman Leah Gunn Barrett poses with objets d’art outside the Congressional offices of Chris Collins, Chris Gibson, Richard Hanna, John Katko, Elise Stefanik and Lee Zeldin.

Example #2: Gays Against Guns Die-In

Meanwhile, Lee Zeldin’s bill that would require law enforcement to get court orders to stop suspected terrorists from buying guns has also run into problems. Democrats don’t like it as it requires showing probable cause. Republicans who don’t like it feel it does not do enough to protect due process.

If I were Paul Ryan, I would schedule a vote on the reciprocity bill and shove it the antigunners faces.

IDC committee

The Senate IDC is forming their own campaign committee:

“A group of five breakaway Senate Democrats is creating its own party campaign committee … The Senate Independent Democratic Conference, also known as the IDC, is doing it through an unusual agreement with the minor state Independence Party. Under the deal, the Independence Party will create the Senate Independence Campaign Committee that Sen. Jeffrey Klein will control … Klein, as part of the deal, said he will not have a say on who the Independence Party endorses. But he’ll use the committee to help fund Independence Party-backed Senate candidates that the IDC also supports …”

This stinks.  Would not surprise me if Gov. Cuomo was involved behind the scenes in this as well.  Ditto for John Flanagan.

“… This fall’s elections will determine which party controls the chamber, with the IDC likely providing the swing votes.”

Exactly.

I don’t see the Senate Republicans having an outright majority anymore.  Heck, with The Donald doing so badly in the state the mainline Democrats might even get enough members to give them complete control leaving both Klein and the Republicans out in the cold.

Why the NRA is AWESOME!

Great video from the MRC.

First NRA ad

NRA is running this ad in several battleground states (not New York):

If this were done by the RNC it would be a decent ad. For NRA, not so much.

First, it does not touch upon gun rights at all. Second, NRA is already widely seen as being too tight with the Republicans. Bringing up a non-gun issue reinforces that.

The Donald’s support for 2A is questionable at best so it is understandable that NRA can’t highlight that. However, they could at least try to make the argument that he would make better judicial picks or sign the reciprocity bill.

Pistol license applications jump in Monroe Co.

#NY3 primary fight on

Some good news out of Long Island: a judge ruled that Philip Pidot has enough signatures to qualify for a Republican congressional primary against State Senator Jack Martins in the open CD-3 seat.

Because the primary is set for next Tuesday, Pidot’s campaign will have to go to court to have it pushed back in order to ensure his name appears on the ballots.  I don’t see why it could not be rescheduled for September like it used to be.

This presents a good opportunity to stick it to Martins for voting for the SAFE Act.

Sit and spin

Congressional Democrats are staging a sit-in on the House floor because the Republican Majority won’t go along with any of their antigun initiatives.

Of course, local reps. Kathleen Rice, Steve Israel and Gregory Meeks are participating in this farce.

Charlie Rangel decided to kick it up a notch by declaring that he (and Congress) are special and should be protected by people with guns:

… “I think we deserve–I think we need to be protected down here.” …

That statement makes the case for term limits.

SCOTUS punts CT gun case

The Supreme Court declined to take up a challenge to Connecticut’s semi-auto ban.  That was not a surprise given they are one justice short at the moment.

This is not the end of the issue.  Some people think that Heller and McDonald settled the gun control debate when in fact they were more of a starting point.  We need to look at things from a long term perspective.  It took nearly 40 years for NRA and others to set up a legal framework which got us Heller.  It is entirely possible that it will take a couple of decades worth of court decisions and legal scholarship before the next right case makes it to them.

Down in flames

All four gun control proposals were rejected by the Senate mostly on party line votes.

Let the whining and hysterics begin.