Legislative Report #13 and NYC Legislative Report #9 are now online. The state legislature is back for regular weekly sessions starting Monday the 9th.
Stewart-Cousins calls for more gun control
Andrea Stewart-Cousins gave the Senate Democratic response to Gov. Cuomo’s State of the State Address. Among their priorities:
“… protecting the men and women of law enforcement by enacting common sense gun control legislation …”
Presumably this means microstamping.
Iowa aftermath
Mitt Romney won the Iowa caucuses yesterday beating out his nearest current rival Rick Santorum by 8 votes.
Due to her poor showing Michele Bachmann has dropped out while Rick Perry plans to stay in for now.
Newt Gingrich is being a dick and that will not help him.
Ron Paul shows why he does not get taken seriously by acknowledging he’s not going to win.
Vallone misfiring
Peter Vallone is clearly worried about reciprocity:
“The City Council’s Public Safety Committee, and then the full council, are set to vote today to denounce a bill just passed by the US House of Representatives that would force every state to honor gun-carry permits issued by other states. The House is indeed off-base here — but New York City still needs to get its act together …”
He got that last part right. NYC and NYS need to get their act together. All the Clown Council’s actions are going to do is demonstrate how out of touch from reality they are. It will not have any effect in Congress.
“… Meredith Graves has become the poster child for the House bill …”
Yes.
“… Imagine an upstanding citizen who’s gone through the background check etc. to get a carry permit in another state and is flying with the gun safely checked in his luggage — until the plane is forced to land at JFK because of mechanical problems, obliging the traveler to spend the night here. He asks where to check his weapon and is immediately arrested … That’s not a nightmare, it’s the existing law in New York state. Reform is needed, now …”
What about the upstanding local citizen who can pass any background check, but gets thumbs down from the NYPD because he isn’t politically connected? Why should they be treated any differently than tourists? Vallone doesn’t strike me as stupid. He must know where this is going.
“… Don’t get me wrong: I’ve written and helped pass many strict gun-control laws to prevent the flow of illegal weapons into New York, and prevent their possession here …”
And they have failed miserably in preventing violent thugs from getting whatever they want.
“… But legal guns, with permits granted here or elsewhere, are not the ones being used to commit crimes, and they aren’t the problem our strict gun laws were enacted to combat …”
Really? Is he going to back that statement up by calling for abolishing the Sullivan Act?
“… What Albany needs to do (and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has indicated a willingness to consider) is to carve out a very narrowly tailored exception in the law to cover people who have gone through background checks and have carry permits from other states who don’t intentionally violate our gun laws. But Albany must not use this valid need for reform to completely gut our tough laws, as lawmakers did with the Rockefeller Drug laws …”
No, he’s not.
“… Yet we still need to fix our gun laws, both for the sake of fairness and to head off that bill in Washington. While our carry laws are too strict (only a few thousand people in New York City have carry permits), New York should set its own standards … with cases like Meredith Graves’, we’re giving the rest of the country ammunition to force passage of the House bill. If that happens, we’ll have truly shot ourselves in the foot.”
At least he’s honest enough to admit his real intentions, blocking H.R. 822.
Another martyr
Headline from the Post says it all, “2nd dubious gun-carry bust“:
“A jeweler from Indiana who came to New York on business got busted trying to check his licensed handgun at the Empire State Building, the latest example of prosecutors taking a hard-line stance against tourists who pack heat. Ryan Jerome, 28, a former Marine tail gunner, is facing 3 1/2 years in jail as Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance pursues felony weapons charges …”
Bloomberg has to be pushing for prosecution. If he called up Vance’s office and asked him to go easy on the guy he would.
“… Jerome’s Sept. 27 arrest came during Jerome’s first visit to the Big Apple, where he arrived with $15,000 worth of gold that he was selling to a refinery on Long Island. Jerome said he needs the gun for his business, and that he has a concealed-weapon permit from his home state …”
He couldn’t sell it in his home state? I see commercials all the time advertising selling unwanted metals and jewelry.
“… “I always check the gun laws. I assumed I was good to go.” He and his girlfriend planned to make the sale and return immediately, but because gold prices had plummeted, they decided to stay a few days — hoping to wait out a price rebound. The safe at their midtown hotel was full, so “we had to carry the gold around wherever we went,” he said …”
Gun or not, I would not carry that much gold around NYC. I know it’s only 9-10 oz. or so, but still.
“… To pass the time they visited the Empire State Building. Jerome says he informed a ticket seller about his gun and was told to go to the building’s security office and check his weapon, a .45 Ruger. Security called the cops, who promptly charged Jerome with weapon possession …”
Opps.
“… Jerome spent two days locked up at 100 Centre Street before getting out on bail and returning home …”
He didn’t deserve that.
All this is going to accomplish is helping to push H.R. 822 through the Senate. Bloomberg, and by extension MAIG, are hurting their own agenda by screwing over otherwise decent citizens like this guy.
Legislative Awareness Day set
This year’s lobby day has been set for March 20 in the LOB. Wayne LaPierre will be guest speaker. The warmer temperatures should reduce the chances of bad weather which we had last year in parts of the state.
Vallone is half-right
“… The case of the Tennessee tourist, Meredith Graves, is just one of “the examples the rest of the country is using in trying to pass this reciprocity law,” Vallone said, referring to a federal bill that would require every state to honor gun licenses issued in other state. The bill passed the House but not the Senate. Gun-control critics, Vallone said, “are pointing to examples like this of law-abiding people who make mistakes and face tremendous jail sentences. And we have to fix it.” …”
Jail sentences are only part of it. There is no reason to restrict a civil right based upon nothing more than political boundaries. That is what H.R. 822 is all about.
The perfect martyr
From the Post, “Tennessee tourist arrested for bringing pistol into 9/11 Memorial“:
“… A tourist from Tennessee waltzed into one of the most secure sites in the city — and politely asked a cop if she could check her weapon. Instead, she was dragged out in cuffs. Now, Meredith Graves, 39, is facing at least three years in prison for thinking New York’s gun laws are anything like those in the Bible Belt … Graves, who has a full legal carry permit in Tennessee, was locked up on a weapons-possession charge and held on $2,000 bond that she posted yesterday …”
She should have checked out local gun laws before bringing her roscoe into the state. There’s really no excuse for that. It is also a good idea for visitors to the Empire State to understand how local residents view them:
“… The Manhattan DA’s Office is pursuing a conviction on felony gun possession — carrying a minimum sentence of 3 1/2 years … Sources don’t believe Graves’ intentions were sinister …”
They obviously weren’t which makes Cy Vance’s efforts to go for a felony conviction all the more outrageous. Outrageous, but not unexpected given he’s tight with NYAGV. Here is a picture of him speaking at their ’10 fundraiser:
“… “You’d think states would reciprocate with the Second Amendment. She has a license to carry in Tennessee,” said her mother-in-law, who lives in Manchester, NJ …”
Being from New Jersey, the mother-in-law should know better than to say that.
What Bloomberg and Vance have created is the perfect martyr and posterchild for H.R. 822. Hopefully this case will help push it through the Senate.
UPDATE: Peter Valone gets it:
“… “By prosecuting this woman and seeking 3 1/2 years of jail, we are shooting our own [gun-control] efforts in the foot and giving the rest of the country ammunition,” Vallone said … Vallone cited a recently passed House bill that would allow people to carry registered guns between all states regardless of local laws. “Clearly, the laws are too strict here, but that’s something we need to work out for ourselves without honoring licenses to carry guns in states where felons can carry them,” he said …”
Carolyn coming up $hort?
I received the 4th e-mail appeal from Carolyn McCarthy’s election committee this morning, this one “written” by Frank Lautenberg:
“Carolyn and I have served together since 1997 – and I can tell you, Congress needs more people like her. In the last year alone, we’ve worked together on a bill to ban high-capacity gun magazines – the kind used in the Tucson shooting earlier this year. And we are currently standing side by side, fighting an NRA-endorsed concealed weapons bill. Time and again, she’s had the courage to speak up when others have stayed silent …”
It’s more of the same fear mongering that the NRA and Tea Party are out to get her and she needs to raise at least $10,000 this month to defend herself. The good news is that according to the included progress bar graph she’s only raised half that amount. Perhaps it’s because her “courage to speak up” isn’t very popular with her constituents.
UPDATE 1/4: she claims she raised $14,000.
Santorum pandering for votes
Now it’s Rick Santorum’s turn to pander for the gun vote:
“Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum sought to underscore his conservative credentials today with a shotgun-toting pheasant hunt alongside a conservative congressman whose endorsement could sway votes in next week’s Iowa caucuses. Dressed in blaze orange with a baseball cap stitched with the letters “NRA,” Santorum told reporters after bagging at least four birds: “I make the argument that there’s nobody who’s done more for the Second Amendment and been stronger on that issue than I have.” …”
That’s great Rick, but all your sucking up won’t amount to anything if you don’t get on the ballot.