{"id":5352,"date":"2012-01-04T09:43:32","date_gmt":"2012-01-04T14:43:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gunpoliticsny.com\/?p=5352"},"modified":"2012-01-04T09:43:32","modified_gmt":"2012-01-04T14:43:32","slug":"vallone-misfiring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gunpoliticsny.com\/?p=5352","title":{"rendered":"Vallone misfiring"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peter Vallone<\/a> is clearly worried<\/a> about reciprocity:<\/p>\n

“The City Council\u2019s Public Safety Committee<\/a>, and then the full council, are set to vote today to denounce a bill just passed by the US House of Representatives<\/a> that would force every state to honor gun-carry permits issued by other states<\/a>. \u00a0The House is indeed off-base here \u2014 but New York City still needs to get its act together …”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He got that last part right. \u00a0NYC and NYS need to get their act together. \u00a0All the Clown Council’s actions are going to do is demonstrate how out of touch from reality they are. \u00a0It will not have any effect in Congress.<\/p>\n

“… Meredith Graves has become the poster child<\/a> for the House bill …”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes.<\/p>\n

“… \u00a0Imagine an upstanding citizen who\u2019s gone through the background check etc. to get a carry permit in another state and is flying with the gun safely checked in his luggage \u2014 until the plane is forced to land at JFK because of mechanical problems, obliging the traveler to spend the night here. He asks where to check his weapon and is immediately arrested … That\u2019s not a nightmare, it\u2019s the existing law in New York state. \u00a0Reform is needed, now …”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What about the upstanding local citizen who can pass any background check, but gets thumbs down from the NYPD<\/a> because he isn’t politically connected? \u00a0Why should they be treated any differently than tourists? \u00a0Vallone doesn’t strike me as stupid. \u00a0He must know where this is going.<\/p>\n

“… Don\u2019t get me wrong: I\u2019ve written and helped pass many strict gun-control laws to prevent the flow of illegal weapons into New York, and prevent their possession here …”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And they have failed miserably in preventing violent thugs from getting whatever they want.<\/p>\n

“… But legal guns, with permits granted here or elsewhere, are not the ones being used to commit crimes, and they aren\u2019t the problem our strict gun laws were enacted to combat …”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Really? \u00a0Is he going to back that statement up by calling for abolishing the Sullivan Act<\/a>?<\/p>\n

“…\u00a0What Albany needs to do (and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver<\/a> has indicated a willingness to consider) is to carve out a very narrowly tailored exception in the law to cover people who have gone through background checks and have carry permits from other states who don\u2019t intentionally violate our gun laws. \u00a0But Albany must not use this valid need for reform to completely gut our tough laws, as lawmakers did with the Rockefeller Drug laws<\/a> …”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

No, he’s not.<\/p>\n

“… Yet we still need to fix our gun laws, both for the sake of fairness and to head off that bill in Washington. \u00a0While our carry laws are too strict (only a few thousand people in New York City have carry permits), New York should set its own standards … with cases like Meredith Graves\u2019, we\u2019re giving the rest of the country ammunition to force passage of the House bill. \u00a0If that happens, we\u2019ll have truly shot ourselves in the foot.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At least he’s honest enough to admit his real intentions, blocking H.R. 822.<\/p>\n