All about guns, legislation and politics in New York
New York magazine asks, “How Much Would a Bloomberg Endorsement Even Help Romney?“:
“The Romney campaign is hoping that early backer John McCain can convince his good friend Michael Bloomberg to cough up an endorsement for the presumed Republican presidential nominee …”
Why? Bloomberg is the last person Romney needs to associate with. He’s a uber antigun, nanny-state, control freak.
Billionaire John Catsimatidis has often been mentioned as a possible Republican candidate for New York City Mayor. It’s common knowledge he carries a gun (because a prerequisite for obtaining an unrestricted NYC pistol license is to be filthy rich and politically connected.) Gothamist interviewed him and he makes some statements about gun ownership:
“… I believe that law-abiding, mentally healthy citizens—after a waiting time and a real test of abilities and a real test of everything, with no bad history in their background—should have the right to bear arms … I think that “Stand Your Ground” laws need a lot of modification. I had a problem in one of my homes where I had a break-in at two o’clock in the morning. I didn’t have my gun with me and if I did, I could have protected my family and I would have probably blown the guy’s head off. Look, at the time it happened, my daughter was 17 years old, my son was 14 years old and one has to protect his family. If somebody breaks into your home and you don’t know what their intent is, one should have the right to have a gun in their home and protect their family …”
This isn’t much but probably as good as we’d get out a candidate. He’s way better than Ray Kelly whose name is being floated by some Republicans.
New York holds its Republican presidential primary tomorrow. Given that Mitt Romney pretty much has the GOP nomination wrapped up it isn’t expected to generate much attention. That did not stop Rudy Giuliani from inserting himself into the race by endorsing Romney today.
Update on the Brady’s pledge drive. The results are in and are even better than expected (for our side.) According to this article:
“… Colin Goddard … told MSNBC that every Congressperson they spoke to told them they supported the pledge — but none, not one, no Democrat, no Republican, would actually sign it …”
Not even Carolyn McCarthy?
The antis need to take this failure personally because this shows a strong personal dislike of the issue by members of Congress. There are lots of reps. in safe districts who could get away with signing their pledge and not have to worry about any ramifications at election time. That they could not get even one of them to do so really shows how toxic the antigunners have become.
Legislative Report #19 is now online.
Newt Gingrich was in New York City yesterday and he recycled some of the material he used at the NRA convention last week for the NYGOP:
According to the Huffington Post, Diane Feinstein is trying to block the reciprocity bill:
“… Feinstein informed party leadership that she would oppose the quick passage of two concealed carry reciprocity bills that critics argue would cause a “race to the bottom” in terms of concealed weapon law in the United States … “Besides putting domestic violence victims in danger, the concealed carry reciprocity bills would also create potentially life threatening situations for law enforcement officers,” Feinstein wrote in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) …”
She’s just trying to capitalize on the Martin-Zimmerman shooting. I don’t see anything new here.
“… In putting a hold on both bills, the “National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2012,” and the “Respecting States’ Rights and Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2012,” Feinstein is denying them the easiest avenue of passage: unanimous consent. The hold does not eliminate the possibility of passing the bills through regular order, with 60-vote requirements to start and end debate. But it’s unclear whether enough support actually exists in the Senate …”
Again, this is nothing new. I don’t think anybody expected the bill(s) to be brought up without a fight. It is worth noting they acknowledge the vote count is uncertain, which is not what Chuck Schumer has said in the past.
The Brady Bunch is trying to get Congressmembers to sign a pledge to keep guns away from “dangerous people.” They also have a petition set up where citizens can sign a pledge not to vote for any candidate who violates the Brady’s set of principles.
Here is MSNBC’s report on it:
I don’t understand why they are going with this approach. The antis have never, ever had any sort of grassroots support or even widespread public support so who exactly do they think is going to sign their pledge? I’m going to assume they’re really just trying to collect some personal information for fundraising purposes because there is no way they’d ever get a large enough number of valid signatures to make Congress take note.
Mark Levin on Mayor Bloomberg’s efforts to exploit the Martin-Zimmerman shooting to advance his antigun agenda.
The Daily News sent a reporter to the NRA meeting and discovers that people do not like Mayor Bloomberg:
“… Members of the National Rifle Association, attending their annual bullet bash in St. Louis, took aim at Hizzoner on Friday for his bold campaign against illegal guns. They called him a bastard, told him to mind his business and challenged his credibility. And those were just comments fit for print in the Daily News …”
Considering some of the garbage the DN has run in the past, they could have run uncensored commentary on the front page. It’s not as if New Yorkers would be offended.
After about a 15-20 phone interview with the reporter, all they ran was this:
“… Jacob Rieper, of the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, said Bloomberg has “zero credibility” on the issue of gun laws …”