State response to request for injunction

On: By: admin

The State has responded to our request for an injunction:

“… Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Ahlstrom wrote in court papers that the claims have no merit.  He noted the motion was filed late Monday, three months after the law passed, undercutting any argument of “perceived imminent harm.”  Ahlstrom asked for 60 days to respond to the injunction request, instead of an expedited schedule he said would deprive government lawyers of adequate time to submit papers “in defense of this landmark statute.”  “The one-sided presentation proposed by plaintiffs is no orderly way to litigate important constitutional issues or to resolve a motion that seeks to enjoin duly enacted state legislation” Ahlstrom wrote …”

Why would they need 60 days to respond when they could not bother to wait just three days for the bills to age before pushing it through the legislature?  If the Governor can use a message of necessity why can’t we?

Motion for preliminary injunction filed

On: By: admin

The R&P has filed a Motion for Preliminary Injunction against the SAFE Act and a Motion for Expedited Hearing on the motion for a preliminary injunction.  The court has not set a briefing schedule or hearing date yet.

SCOTUS declines to hear proper cause case

On: By: admin

SCOTUS has declined to hear SAF’s challenge to the Sullivan Act’s discretionary licensing system.

This should not be taken as a sign of approval by the court.  They only take like 1% of the appealed cases.

SAFE rumormongering

On: By: admin

Some rumormongering: the background check for ammunition purchases will soon be dropped as there is no money to fund it.

Making excuses

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Here is NYAGV spokeswoman Leah Gunn-Barrett making excuses as to why the antigunners have not been more successful:

True, they have not organized at the grassroots level. They rely on astroturf and a biased media to present their side without question.

Explaining Cuomo’s popularity drop

On: By: admin

The Observer finds that people are more interested in Anthony Weiner’s dick than pushing gun control.

That explains Governor Cuomo’s declining popularity.  He’s hard on the wrong issue.

Trying to buy off gun owners

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Gov. Cuomo appears to be trying a time-honored Tammany tactic of buying votes:

“As Gov. Andrew Cuomo continues to face heat from firearm-rights supporters and conservatives for the state’s January gun-control laws, his administration is launching a new grant program for shooting ranges across the state.  The state Department of Environmental Conservation on Wednesday launched the grant program, which will distribute $65,000 in 2013 to non-profit or municipal ranges in New York, Commissioner Joseph Martens announced Wednesday.  It’s funded with federal firearms tax money required to be used for educational programs …”

First off, while $65K may seem like a lot of money if you’re trying to buy the Republican nomination for NYC mayor, it’s really chump change.  I believe FNRA doles out over $1 million per year in the state for various shooting programs.

Second, and more importantly, this is not a new program.  NYSRPA and others have asked for this for years and DEC had some sort of program for giving out money in place several years ago.

Cuomo’s Brady ad

On: By: admin

Here is a copy of the Brady Bunch ad Gov. Cuomo had made.

Earlier posts had the video deleted. I finally found a copy and uploaded it locally so it won’t disappear.

I’ve seen more lively actors on the Walking Dead.

Sensing the peoples’ will

On: By: admin

Unbelievable to him, but not the general public.

Has it occurred to the Governor that his actions might have something to do with it?

Then explain your huge drop in popularity.

Failing grade

On: By: admin

Mayor Mike is going to start grading politicians:

“… Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the nonprofit group financed by Bloomberg (I), will unveil a scoring system Tuesday to award lawmakers grades of A through F, much like the National Rifle Association, which has derived much of its power by deploying letter rankings against politicians at election time … “For decades, the NRA has done an admirable job of tracking to minute detail how members of Congress stand on gun bills.  We’ve simply decided to do the same,” said Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns … Glaze outlined a sophisticated algorithm that would weigh lawmakers’ votes on gun bills as well as their public statements and other actions to issue overall letter grades.   “Not every member can vote for every bill, but if not, there are other things they can and should be doing, and we will have our eye out for those as well,” Glaze said … “The appetite for information about where members are is very high,” Glaze said. Of the scorecard, he added: “We don’t intend that this will be a tree falling in the forest.  We intend for people to have all the information they need to make sound voting and political-contribution decisions.” …”

This is going to fail for one simple reason: NRA has an actual voting constituency which cares about the issue.  That is why their grades mean something to politicians.  MAIG is just astroturf funded almost entirely by one person: Bloomberg himself.

Plus, antis who agree with Bloomberg can already use NRA’s grades to make choices.  That hasn’t worked because even people who don’t like guns or who don’t like the NRA do not care enough about the issue to vote based on it.  There is a reason that groups like the Brady Campaign and New Yorkers Against Gun Violence have largely given up trying to influence elections: they can’t.