Bloomberg/Everytown endorses Hillary

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Michael Bloomberg’s astroturf proxy endorsed Hillary Clinton for President:

“… “Gun Sense Voters have a champion in Hillary Clinton,” John Feinblatt, the president of Everytown for Gun Safety, said in the statement. “Our litmus test is simple: does a candidate side with the public or with the gun lobby? Hillary Clinton passes that test with flying colors — pushing back against the N.R.A.’s extreme ‘guns for everyone, everywhere’ agenda, and ushering in a new political calculus that saving lives from gun violence is a winning issue.” …”

This strikes me as being more about Hillary v. Bernie than Hillary v. Trump.  I have seen just one Hillary road sign along with two Trump signs and one Trump bumpersticker.  By contrast I have seen a lot of Bernie signs and bumperstickers and they are not confined to one area.

“… In addition to the endorsement, Everytown pledged to help Mrs. Clinton’s campaign get out the vote in California’s primary on Tuesday, the spokeswoman said, hosting phone banks and door-to-door campaigns that would start over the weekend …”

I don’t see this as being very effective.  Aside from gun control never really being a motivating issue, there is not much of a difference between the two candidates, Hillary’s “F” and Bernie’s “D-“.  It comes across as an unpopular issue group trying to prop-up an unpopular candidate.

Warren’s gun violence press conference

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Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren is big on gun control. With June being “Gun Violence Awareness Month” she had a press conference. It’s horrible:

Yet another White House gun control push

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President Obama is making yet another push for more gun control.  It looks like Vice President Biden is leading the charge and he made this pronouncement:

“… “There is a 2nd Amendment,” Biden said. “It’s real. It exists and it must be upheld. And there is a need to significantly decrease the exposure to violence as consequence of the use of a gun in American society.” …”

Eric Schneiderman is getting in on the act by joining with several other State Attorney Generals in calling for Congress to provide funding to the CDC for gun control “research”.  Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy is also making noise, but he just seems whiny and annoying.

I don’t think any of this is going to amount to much.  It all looks so weak.

NRA endorsement

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NRA endorsed The Donald yesterday.  From what I have seen gun owners are not jumping for joy over the choice between him and Hillary.

Trump’s record on guns can at best be called mixed.  NRA is making Justice Scalia’s replacement the issue and pitched him as being more likely to nominate pro-gun justices to SCOTUS than Hillary.  That is a hard sell and given Trump’s past political history is very much debatable.

It won’t matter much here in New York anyway.  With the Democrats 2-1 enrollment advantage Hillary should easily win the state.

Judge strikes down D.C. “may issue” law

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Some more good news from the courts, a federal judge has struck down as likely unconstitutional the Washington D.C. “may issue” CCW law:

“… “The enshrinement of constitutional rights necessarily takes certain policy choices off the table,” [U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon] wrote in a 46-page opinion, quoting a 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2008 in another District case that established a constitutional right to keep firearms in one’s home.  Leon said that the right applies both inside and outside the home.  “The District’s understandable, but overzealous, desire to restrict the right to carry in public a firearm for self-defense to the smallest possible number of law-abiding, responsible citizens is exactly the type of policy choice the Justices had in mind,” he wrote …”

Neither this nor the Peruta case in the 9th Circuit directly affect New York, but they might have some reference value in future court cases.

9th Circuit rules 2A applies to gun sales

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A three-judge panel for the 9th Circuit Court issued a ruling that “the right to purchase and sell firearms is part and parcel of the historically recognized right to keep and bear arms.”

Link to Second Amendment Foundation’s press release.

Link to court decision.

Clinton/Warren ticket?

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SAFE didn’t help Skelos

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Former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos was convicted of corruption.

His claim that he showed “courage” in passing the SAFE Act apparently did not move the judge as Skelos received a 5 year prison sentence plus $500,000 fine. Junior got a 6.5 year sentence for his part in the scheme.

Parting shot

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Assemblyman Steve Katz is not running for re-election so he lets fly with his opinions on Albany politics:

Steve’s comments are right on the money.

One note, with respect to all the junk bills that come up, the Republicans should learn something from this. The Democrats do this to appeal to their base, raise money and push the issue along. They do the same just about every year in the Senate trying to move a couple of antigun bills with a Motion for Committee Hearing/Motion for Discharge. There is no reason the Republicans could not do the same in the Assembly. The fact that they don’t is why they are down to so few members.

Democrat (Majority?) Leader Schumer

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According to this article in the Post, Chuck Schumer is set to become Senate Democrat Leader when the 115th Congress convenes next January.

Hopefully he will be Minority Leader, not Majority Leader, next year.  Stupidity surrounding The Donald may have put Congressional control in play.