All about guns, legislation and politics in New York
George Mason University Professor Joyce Lee Malcolm says an “assault weapon” and “high capacity” magazine ban is unconstitutional. She is the author of “To Keep and Bear Arms: The Origins of an Anglo-American Right” and “Guns and Violence: The English Experience” among other works.
Note: The SAFE Act is mentioned in this video clip.
Her statements reinforce a similar statement by Alan Gura that 7-round magazine limits are probably unconstitutional.
In response to the 12K people who came to Albany on February 28 to lobby for SAFE Act repeal, New Yorkers Against Gun Violence held their own rally in Harlem on March 21. Speakers included reps. from SEIU and UFT, racist rabble-rouser Al Sharpton and singer Tony Bennett, who I’m guessing is suffering from some form of senile dementia.
They are claiming “thousands” attended, but there is no way there were that many. The few photos I’ve seen are either close-ups or eye-level crowd shots, typical tactics used to disguise the true number of attendees.
Here’s some video:
Legislative Report #5 is now online.
Adam Winkler at The Daily Beast writes, “Did the Assault-Weapons Ban Kill Gun Control?“:
“… Gun-control advocates will no doubt mourn the demise of Feinstein’s assault-weapons proposal. Yet, they may soon be asking if the proposal lived too long—just long enough to dash hopes of enacting any meaningful reform … There was one certain impact of proposing to ban the sale of assault weapons: it was guaranteed to stir gun-rights proponents to action …”
Exactly. It is reasonable to assume that the Democrats took a look at Gov. Cuomo’s huge drop in the polls and concluded a similar backlash would be in store for them if they went along with DiFi. So in his rush to be #1, Cuomo screwed the pooch for the antis nationwide.
Did a brief interview for WNYC today on the Governor’s new idea to let people buy 10 round mags., but only load 7 cartridges in them:
“… some wonder how the state can enforce the proposed change and ensure gun owners with 10-round magazines only have seven bullets loaded. “How would you do that? Are you going to go around to everyone who you think owns a gun and ask can I see your magazine to see do you have the proper number of rounds in it?” said Jacob Rieper, the vice president of legislative and political affairs for the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association …”
Have not gotten answer to this question. Don’t expect one either.
The NYSRPA lawsuit against the SAFE Act has been filed today in federal court in Buffalo. Co-plantiffs include the Westchester County Firearm Owners Association, Sportsmen’s Association for Firearms Education and New York State Amateur Trap Shooting Association plus some other individuals and businesses.
Here is a copy of the paperwork.
It appears that a new federal AWB is dead:
“In a huge political victory for the NRA, an assault-weapons ban proposed in the wake of the Newtown massacre won’t be part of a Senate gun-control bill, all but eliminating its chances of passage. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), author of the ban, said yesterday that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid(D-Nev.) had decided to ditch the legislation because it lacked the votes to pass …”
Good. Now the question is what is the political impact on Gov. Cuomo who was so sure gun control was a winning issue that he wanted to be the first elected official to pass new laws after Newtown?
Shelly acknowledges the legislature is under pressure to change SAFE:
Silver says SAFE Act alterations part of the budget discussions. Says the magazine limit of seven could be changed
— Capital Tonight (@CapitalTonight) March 19, 2013
Gov. Cuomo, however, is having none of it:
Cuomo says there will be no change to the number of rounds in a magazine in the SAFE Act.
— Capital Tonight (@CapitalTonight) March 19, 2013
Unlike SEIU, we have a real constituency:
“Their anger at what they see as over-reaching by the government keeping them warm under icy gray skies, as many as 2,000 anti-Cuomo, pro-gun protestors gathered on the front lawn at the Schoharie DAR Saturday in a We The People rally …”
Nobody paid them to show up either. Even better (for us) or worse (for Gov. Cuomo):
“… Carlisle Supervisor Larry Bradt was instrumental in putting together the rally, organized after supervisors in February blasted the NY SAFE ACT … Friday, supervisors took that a step further by vowing not to spend a dime enforcing it. “We’re not asking anyone to repeal this law, we’re demanding it,” Mr. Bradt said to loud applause Saturday …”
That’s something else Cuomo neglected to mention, that the counties would be stuck with footing the bill for implementing SAFE as an unfunded mandate.