Mistake to say this

On: By: admin

Washington Whispers reports on NRA President David Keene’s goal to knock off Obama next year:

“… “Our major goal is to defeat Obama because if he’s re-elected, he’s going to attempt to change the Supreme Court.  All he needs is one vote and he will rewrite the Second Amendment,” says Keene …”

While this is certainly true, it is equally true that an antigun Republican could do the same thing.  By announcing their intentions this early in the campaign season, they’re essentially acknowledging that any Republican including antigun Mitt Romney will be acceptable to them even if they have terrible public records on the issue.  Any leverage NRA had in a possible GOP primary is now gone as is any they had for influencing the V.P. pick.  This was seriously stupid of Keane to open his mouth.

Recess & recap

On: By: admin

The state legislature has gone into recess.

We continued to make small, positive advances in Albany.  The only gun control bill to come up was microstamping A-1157A and it took much arm twisting to get 77 Yea votes, the slimmest majority for any antigun bill I can recall over the past 20 years.  Big game rifle hunting bills for several counties passed giving us some minor victories.  If we continue at the same pace next year, and have good turnout at lobby day, next year may be the first year in who knows how long that no gun control bills come up.

Leadership shuffle

On: By: admin

It appears that Dean Skelos is going to get booted as Senate Majority Leader before the legislature goes into recess.  His likely replacement is Tom Libous.  From a RKBA standpoint, Libous is much more pro-gun than Skelos so this should not affect microstamping and other legislation.

Defining moment for Scaturro

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Frank Scaturro is planning on making another run against Carolyn McCarthy next year.  The New Hyde Park Patch has this interesting tidbit in a story about his campaign kickoff:

“… One of McCarthy’s big issues has been gun safety.  Scaturro believes in the constitutional right to bear arms and that people have the right to have something for their self defense.  He understands though that the general public doesn’t need machine guns that could cause a lot of damage and is sensitive to gun safety after having been robbed at gunpoint recently …”

I don’t know if this comes from direct quote from his campaign or just the editor writing their interpretation of his position, but this statement is pure BS.

Historically, McCarthy’s opponents have been cannon fodder who didn’t put much effort into their campaigns.  On guns, they were either as bad as McCarthy herself or nearly so and all did their best to avoid the issue.  This makes sense to a degree as McCarthy is a single issue candidate and owns the antigun position.  Now with Scaturro himself being a victim of violent crime I don’t see how he can avoid dealing with the RKBA directly.  He’s either going to have to publicly come out 100% gun rights or 100% gun bigot.

Still there

On: By: admin

The state legislature is still in session arguing over gay “marriage”, rent control and property taxes.  Guns aren’t on the posted agenda, but this is the time when they often try to sneak stuff through.

Records check update

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It is my understanding that the NYS Health Department has hired 2-3 people to process the backlog of records checks for pistol license applicants.  I don’t have a number, but it has to be in the thousands of applications going back to at least March.

HR-822 update

On: By: admin

Congresswoman Ann Marie Buerkle (R-25) signed on as co-sponsor to the national reciprocity bill HR-822.  It now has 236 co-sponsors.  Other local co-sponsors include Chris Gibson (R-20), Richard Hanna (R-24), Bill Owens (D-23) and Tom Reed (R-29).

Legislative Report #11, End of Session alert

On: By: admin

Legislative Report #11 is now online.

The legislature is scheduled to go into recess on Monday, but may go long. We need calls to the Senate on both the microstamping bill S-675A and a domestic violence bill S-4244C which contains some very bad language which could affect gun owners involved in such cases as it specifically allows determinations to be made based on hearsay.

Grassroots v. astroturf

On: By: admin

CSGV published a link on their FaceBook group to a story on gay marriage which contains quotes from Senator Roy McDonald where he says he’s trying to do the right thing on the issue and not play politics.

The problem (for the antis) is that unlike supporters of so-called gay marriage, the antigunners don’t actually have any sort of organized grassroots constituency as evidenced by the fact they can not get any people to show up in Albany to lobby for their cause and have to resort to bringing a couple of bus loads of high schools kids up from NYC.  Below is a picture of their group in The Well of the LOB during their lobby day back in April.

 

This is lack of public support is why the antis are having ever increasing difficulty in moving their agenda through the state legislature.

Jenkins sentenced

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Monticello Mayor Gordon Jenkins has been sentenced for selling counterfeit sneakers.  He gets a conditional discharge and several thousand dollars in fines.

He is still listed a being a member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns in good standing.