Timeline
There was a mass shooting in Buffalo last week.
Apparently it was gang related.
7 of the 8 “victims” had criminal backgrounds.
Senator Antoine Thompson tries to use it as an excuse to push microstamping.
Mayor Byron Brown calls it “reprehensible” the media outed the “victims” as having violent criminal pasts.
Obviously, racism is to blame.
Dinosaur media endorses Schneiderman
The New York Times endorsed Eric Schneiderman:
“New York State needs a tough, honest and smart attorney general to attack the culture of corruption in Albany, protect consumers and the environment, and promote civil rights … For the Democratic nomination, we support State Senator Eric Schneiderman …”
Yeah, promote civil rights except for those specifically enumerated civil rights which the Times editors do not approve of.
According to Capitol Confidential this endorsement is a big deal:
“… The Times endorsement is seen as a major plum for the Democratic Party, where many stalwart Democrats in New York City rely on the paper as their main source of news …”
I think not. This might have been true many years ago, but is not now. Their circulation has been dropping for years and is down more than 8% from last year alone. People, regardless of their ideology, just do not rely on old media outlets like the Times anymore. This is not the game changer Schneiderman’s campaign is trying to spin it as.
Mandatory storage under review
The Westchester County legislature is reviewing whether the mandatory storage law passed by Andy Spano will hold up now that the 2A is incorporated to the states. According to the Journal News:
… “We have to consider whether our law is unconstitutional,” said Legislator John Nonna, D-Pleasantville, the chairman of the legislation committee. “We should examine whether our gun-storage law is subject to a constitutional challenge.” …
I suspect they’re going to end up changing it. Spano was the driving force behind all the antigun initiatives in the county and with him gone I don’t think there will be much cheerleading for it.
Eric interrupted
Bloomberg endorses Pete King
Mayor Mike has endorsed Pete King for re-election. NPR’s piece, “Bloomberg Busy Backing Candidates Of Both Parties,” contains a very important observation:
“… Political science professor Douglas Muzzio, of Baruch College in New York, says Bloomberg — if nothing else — is collecting some political IOUs. “Certainly it makes him a national player,” Muzzio says. “He’s getting chits from both sides of the aisle. It fuels the narrative of Mike Bloomberg, plutocrat, as philosopher king and all that comes with it — both in terms of influence and ego if you will.” …”
Damn right he’s collecting political favors and he’s going to use them to advance his gun control agenda. King has floated between a C and D rating over the years so it will be interesting to see whether it drops down after this endorsement.
News conference with Schneiderman & Schimel
NRA in CD-19
It appears that NRA is going to endorse Nan Hayworth in CD-19. They hired a “campaign field representative” who is trying to drum up support for her from area gun clubs. There is no formal endorsement notice on either the PVF website or Hayworth’s campaign site.
Like we didn’t see this coming
New Yorkers Against Gun Violence endorsed Eric Schneiderman:
“… “No one in New York State has fought harder to protect the people of our state from gun violence than Eric Schneiderman,” said the group’s executive director, Jackie Hilly. “From his first days in the Senate when he kept the NRA out of our schools, to his recent bipartisan work with Mayor Bloomberg to help police solve gun crimes with microstamping technology, Eric has been in the forefront of the fight to keep illegal guns out of the hands of children and criminals.” …”
This means nothing. NYAGV brings no money, manpower or GOTV ability to the table. His endorsement by Alec Baldwin is worth more than this.
What gun activists need to learn
Robert Walker, the former head of Handgun Control (Brady Campaign), offers some advice to the enviro-nuts in this piece, “What climate activists need to learn from the NRA and the gun-control wars.” Putting aside his obvious bias against the NRA, there’s some good stuff in there:
“… Remember: all politics is politics. It is not a debate competition. Elected officials must be persuaded by all means legal and ethical to vote for your position …”
Exactly. Far too many gunnies spend their time trying to be right, whether it’s compiling facts about private gun ownership and crime or digging up quotes from the Founding Fathers, and not nearly enough time on how to actually implement their ideas. Anyone who has ever seen the floor debates on gun bills in Albany knows that a rational discussion on the facts never comes up from the other side. Why worry about it then? There is nothing wrong with simply telling a legislator to vote your way or else you will work against them next election cycle.
“… Fight on all fronts. Congress is just one battlefield in a much larger theater of political conflict involving 536 elections, including the election of the president. If you are not fighting for the election of your friends and the defeat of your enemies at the ballot box, the battle for Congress is already lost. Your involvement in a campaign may or may not make a critical difference in the outcome of an election, but if your presence is not felt there, it will not be felt much in Congress either …”
I would add that a bottom-up approach is better than top-down, working and supporting candidates for local and state offices where gunnies can have the most immediate impact rather than for Congressional and Presidential candidates.
“… Fight behind enemy lines. Support on controversial issues tends to divide along party lines, but don’t let that stop you from recruiting and supporting a candidate on your issue who happens to be a member of the other party. In fact, getting involved in primary fights on the other side of the political aisle may be the single most effective thing you can do to change the political dynamic. Members of Congress will do almost anything — including voting for climate-change legislation — to avoid a serious primary challenge …”
Yep, and the reason for that is primary turnout is pathetic. 500 gunnies showing up to vote for a candidate for Assembly in November might be ignored when the average turnout is 35,000-40,000, but 500 gunnies showing up in September is a big deal when only 3500-4000 are expected to turnout.
“… Don’t fear to be feared. Progressive groups, including many supporters of climate-change legislation, love to be loved. The gun lobby doesn’t care if you don’t like it, so long as you fear it …”
I would have said respected, but the point is well taken.
“… Don’t get mad, get even … When I worked on gun issues, I ran into a lot of activists, particularly the victims and survivors of gun violence, who were incensed at Congress for its failure to adopt sensible gun laws. The key was to channel that anger and frustration into constructive action, and we did that with the passage of the Brady Law and the federal assault-weapons ban … success is the best revenge …”
Yep. Bob just leaves out that gunnies sure did get their revenge on Congress for passing both those unpopular laws in the ’94 elections and did it so well that 16 years later, an antigun President and a largely antigun leadership won’t even consider moving the antis agenda through Congress.
The best chance for revenge is at the ballot box. Vote early, vote often, vote pro-gun.