All about guns, legislation and politics in New York
Newsmax reports on the Republican’s Congressional agenda:
“… Republicans promise to cut spending, roll back President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul and prevent unelected bureaucrats from expanding the government’s role in society through regulations that tell people what they must or can’t do …”
I don’t see where Republicans specifically spell out their intentions. NRA has made it clear that their agenda for the new Congress includes nationwide CCW reciprocity.
Andrew Cuomo has been sworn in as Governor. Marvelous.
He has a proven track record as an antigunner going back to his time at HUD. He didn’t make a big deal about guns during his campaign and I still believe Eric Schneiderman is going to be pointman on the issue. We should know soon enough what the Governor is going to do. Three things to look out for this month are:
With Schniederman, I know what he’s going to do: be a royal pain the in the ass and not just to New York gun owners. I expect he’ll waste no time announcing all sorts of antigun initiatives at the state and national level.
Rather than punish violent, antisocial deviants, a bunch of State Senators championed Operation S.N.U.G., a touchy-feely anti-gun, anti-violence initiative that basically treats thugs as victims of our capitalist pig society. Predictably, it has not gone so well as the TU reports, “Job lands parolee in jail“:
“The people who hired Jermal Greenwood as part of Operation SNUG, an experimental anti-violence initiative funded by a state grant, thought his background as an ex-offender made him a “credible messenger” and a “role model” to mediate disputes in the city’s roughest neighborhoods. But his parole officer, concerned that Greenwood was bending the rules, threw him in the Albany County jail Nov. 8 after charging him with failing to abide by his curfew and correctly charge his electronic monitoring bracelet 11 times in three weeks …”
Whose dumb idea was it to promote ex-cons as role models?
“… [S.N.U.G.] was championed by Democrats in the state Senate including Neil Breslin, a Bethlehem Democrat, and New York City Democrats Malcolm Smith, and Eric Schneiderman (the incoming attorney general) as a progressive alternative to break the ongoing of cycle of violence in urban neighborhoods …”
Of course. So, what exactly is the goal of S.N.U.G.?
“… SNUG is based on Project Cease Fire in Chicago, which takes an epidemiological approach to urban violence. If the population is inoculated — children hearing stories of disputes settled by words rather than seeing street fights or shootings — and some of the worst carriers are isolated, eventually the problem goes away …”
We already have a proven solution to isolate “the worst carriers”. It’s called prison. What’s wrong with that?
“… “The evidence is absolutely conclusive that traditional law enforcement approaches have not succeeded in stopping gang violence,” Schneiderman, D-Manhattan, said. “This is an all-levers approach.” …”
The evidence is absolutely conclusive that gun control != crime control, but that sure hasn’t stopped Schneiderman from promoting it. And what exactly does an “all-levers approach” mean?
“… “The whole model is predicated on hiring credible messengers who will be able to circulate in the community among gang involved, violence involved, drug involved individuals,” [Trinity Alliance CEO Harris Oberlander] said. “It’s important that we begin to create a body of work, a record in the community and a sense of evidence that we’ve begun to, as the model calls for, infiltrate the community with public health messages that counteract the fact that communal violence has been on the landscape for too long.” …”
Ex-cons are not credible messengers. Parents are. Teachers are. Local businessmen are. Local clergy are. People who have not built their lives off the misery of others are.
“… “How are they supposed to help people if they themselves cannot uphold the rule of law?” said [Martin] Golden, a Brooklyn Republican and former New York City police officer …”
Exactly.
An early Christmas present arrives: antigun and antihunting advocate Wally John was fired from his political appointment at the DEC.
Brian Kolb plugs Legislative Awareness Day here and here.
Two children playing with a parents handgun results in unintentional discharge and death. Mouthpiece from New Yorkers Against Guns exploits tragedy by advocating mandatory storage.
Alan Chartock predicts “a reporter will be jailed on a gun charge” in ’11.
Remington has a new cartridge coming out for AR-pattern rifles, the .300 AAC Blackout, while SIG will be making a .50 cal rifle.
David Koon was one of the biggest antis in the legislature, sponsoring or co-sponsoring the worst of the gun control bills in the Assembly. Fortunately, he imploded and lost his bid for re-election last month. Now comes word that he’s been charged with harassment:
“Assemblyman David Koon has been charged with second-degree harassment, a violation, in connection with a pre-Election Day incident … Koon’s charge is related to an Oct. 29 confrontation over the placement of campaign signs. Ken Gullo of Perinton was putting up signs for Republican Carl Paladino, and Koon said he objected to their placement, saying they were in the right-of-way … Gullo’s attorney, Anjan Ganguly, said Gullo felt threatened during the incident. “Mr. Koon seemed to have a real problem with Mr. Gullo placing those signs where they were being placed,” Ganguly said …”
First Adam Bradley, now David Koon. Why are the antis so violent?
IR-1916 passed out of committee on a 4-0 vote, but was defeated yesterday by the full county legislature 6-12.
Patricia Eddington may be long gone from the Assembly, but her husband Jack is keeping the antigun dream alive in the Suffolk county legislature. He has introduced IR-1916 restricting the use of air guns.
“… The main thrust of this legislation is to identify air guns and rifles as weapons and prohibit the discharge of any air gun within 150 feet of any residence in Suffolk County … the bill defines an air gun as any rifle, pistol, or shot gun which discharges .20 caliber or greater pellets propelled by compressed air or gas at a muzzle velocity of 700 feet per second or greater …”
This ignores the fact that most air guns are .177. Jack’s level of dumb is in line with Pat’s previous comments about heat-seeking .50 caliber rounds, though:
“… David Foltmann, the owner of Cobra Airguns in Ronkonkoma … disputes that the only reason this legislation is currently before the legislature is due to a vendetta one of his neighbors has against him resulting from neighborhood politics. He told Patch the anonymous neighbor has frequently called the police and the legislature arguing that Cobra Airguns has people test firing their rifles endangering local school children. He confidently asserts that this is a fabrication and said, “that if this were the case there would be numerous complaints from many other neighbors.” …”
In other words, this is a total non-issue.
“… Eddington said the towns of Babylon, Huntington, Smithtown and Brookhaven along with the villages of Patchogue, Southampton, Babylon, and Port Jefferson have enacted legislation regulating the use of air guns … “In some cases, the discharge of these guns is absolutely restricted within the bounds of the town or village,” Eddington added. “In other cases, a parameter is given. For instance, in the Village of Southampton you cannot discharge any gun within 500 feet of any dwelling or building occupied by a person as a dwelling …”
That is statewide EnCon law and it relates to firearms, not air guns.
This is very typical for the antis. There is no real public support for this law, but one or two cranks make noise to the right people and presto, bills like this appear.
Mayor Mike’s newest antigun initiative as outlined in the Washington Post article, “Gun regulators propose emergency plan“:
“To stem the flow of guns to Mexico, federal firearms regulators are proposing an emergency requirement that certain gun dealers along the southwestern border report bulk sales of so-called assault weapons beginning as soon as January. Dealers would be required to alert authorities when they sell within five consecutive business days two or more semiautomatic rifles greater than .22 caliber with detachable magazines … One of those pushing the administration to act was New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s office and his policy adviser, John Feinblatt, who first proposed such a requirement early in the administration. “Sixteen months ago, we called for it,” Feinblatt said. “It’s time to do it.” …”
Since when is buying two of anything constitute a bulk purchase? Plus the whole idea that Mexican drug cartels are coming to America to buy guns is absurd. This is just the latest big lie from the antis.
If the Obama administration wants to so something about border violence they should take a good look at legalizing drugs as the so-called war on drugs has been as big a public policy disaster as the gun control schemes Bloomberg and Co. are pushing for.