House putting off gun bills

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Gun legislation in the House has been pushed back until after the summer recess at the earliest:

“… “Given the events … we need to take a step back and show some real calmness and some real leadership and reflect on what’s happening in this country, and pursue the gun issue at a further date,” Rep. Mimi Walters (R-Calif.), the freshman class representative to GOP leadership, told The Hill after a meeting in Ryan’s office …”

And hopefully bury the issue.

“… Last week, Ryan faced dozens of GOP defections on a leadership-backed gun control measure … Conservatives argued that terrorist watchlists often wrongly include people and that the law would thus infringe on the Second Amendment. “I think it’s dead,” conservative Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) told The Hill last week …”

I’m inclined to agree.  The answer to PSH is time.  Plus it puts us closer to the election day dumpster fire which will be front and center in everybody’s mind, not gun control.

The only two Congressional races where challengers have tried to make it an issue are Anna Throne-Holst in CD-1 and Colleen Deacon in CD-24 and it does not appear to be gaining much traction in either district.

Gun bills failing in the House

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Democrats are continuing their efforts to get a gun control bill voted on in the House.  Their 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

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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!

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Great video from the MRC.

First NRA ad

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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.

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#NY3 primary fight on

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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

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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

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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.