Gun Politics New York

The Ostego Co. legislature voted in favor of a resolution advising state lawmakers not to adopt more gun control laws:

“… Rep. James Johnson, R-Otsego, said the nation’s founders had considered the right to bear arms “second in importance only to freedom of speech.”  Then he read part of the Second Amendment to his colleagues …”

Good for him.  He gets it.  Unfortunately, not all of his colleagues do.

“… Richard Murphy, D-Oneonta … Murphy said he believed the measures were “designed to target handguns and illegal guns,” not to restrict hunters. Handguns should be banned because they are implicated in many murders, Murphy said …”

Bloomberg’s antigun crusade doesn’t come cheap:

“Mayor Bloomberg’s crusade against guns comes with a price tag attached. Bills obtained by the Daily News show the city Law Department has paid almost $1.5 million to Kroll Associates, a high-end detective firm, for its undercover probe of out-of-state gun sales … The investigators and their bosses billed the city between $225 and $325 an hour each, some of them for more than 100 hours per month … they spent tens of thousands of dollars on airfare, hotels, meals and other travel expenses.  They also billed the city for tens of thousands of dollars for background checks, research costs, cash payments for guns, and equipment – including $58,100 for recording gear …”

Let Mayor Mike pay for this out of his own pocket. He can afford it.

The Times blog has a piece on the life and times of notorious thug “Big” Tim Sullivan, the man to whom we owe the Sullivan Act.

Sullivan is the subject of a new book, “King of the Bowery: Big Tim Sullivan, Tammany Hall, and New York City from the Gilded Age to the Progressive Era.”

Alan Gottlieb just sent me a copy of his book, “Assault on Weapons: The Campaign to Eliminate Your Guns.” Since it was free, I’ll plug it.  It came in today’s mail so I haven’t read it, but it looks like something that would be useful for someone doing a school report on gun control.  Here are the chapter titles:

1. A Philosophy of Hatred and Fear
2. ‘Nobody Needs an Ak-47’
3. Extremist Groups and Media Complicity
4. Punishing the Innocent
5. Legal, Political and Social Hypocrisy
6. Right to Carry Hysteria
7. The Process of Demonization
8. The Campaign of Litigation
9. The Myth of ‘Reasonable Regulation’
10. Regaining Lost Gun Rights
11. A Looming Battle of Philosophy
12. The Insidious Drumbeat for ‘Tigher gun Laws’
13. Demonization and Hope