Our non-elected governor has called Clown College - excuse me, I mean the New York State Senate - back into session next week for one day. The date is Thursday, August 6, 2009. Those who know history are aware of the significance of this date. Please note that Paterson is a New York City-type Democrat.
Among the bills that could come up in this extraordinary special session are a slew of anti-gun bills. Here is what I wrote to my state senator, advising him to vote them all down. Feel free to use my letter as a template for writing your own letter telling your state senator how you would like him to vote.
Dear Senatorl:
I've read that Governor Paterson has called for an extraordinary one-day session of the State Senate this coming Thursday, August 6, 2009. I do not believe that the date is coincidental, given some of the anti-gun bills currently before the State Senate.
To refresh your memory these are:
SB 1598, which would require all pistol permits to be renewed at five year intervals. Just because that's how the county governments down in New York City and Westchester County do things is no reason to force the rest of the state to comply with their rules. Too many of the legislators from those districts think that "New York State" stops at the Westchester county borders. Some of them think "New York State" stops at New York City's city limits!
I point out that New York City does not even acknowledge pistol permits issued by any other New York State authority as being valid.
I don't gainsay the right of New York City and Westchester County to run their permit programs the way they do. But I do ask that those yahoos leave the rest of New York State alone. Let us run our programs and protocols our way. Please vote NO on this bill.
SB 1715 would require that every firearms dealer and retailer obtain liability insurance against the possibility that a gun they sold is used to commit a crime. Criminals do not get their guns from gun store - or gun shows, for that matter. They steal them or get them from other crooks who have obtained them somehow. That is what the FBI and even the NYPD say in their reports on the subject.
This is like requiring a car dealer to get liability insurance because someone might drive drunk in a car he sold and kill somebody. It is an attack on honest businesses. It is back-door gun control by the gun-ban crowd. Since they can't ban guns outright, they want to choke off the supply of firearms to honest citizens. Vote NO on this underhanded, back-door gun control bill.
SB 2379 would outlaw "frangible ammunition." What the anti-gun crowd wants to do is outlaw the new type of personal defense ammunition devloped by ammunition manufacturers. An example is Hornady's "Critical Defense" round. But as the bill is written, it would outlaw anything except cast lead bullets and full metal jacket military-type ammunition. It's a sneaky trick to get the precedent of banning ammunition onto the books.
If the gun-banners get this law, they'll be back to expand the restrictions and will turn hundreds of thousands of honest gun owners into criminals, just as Prohibition made social drinkers into criminals. Please vote Nay on this bill.
SB 3098 would mandate how firearms are to be stored. My reaction and that of most legitimate gun owners is to say, "Get out of my house, you damned anti-gun legislators!" This bill violates personal privacy as guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment, flies in the face of DC v. Heller and does not take individual circumstances into account.
I have a child in the house. My firearms are kept unloaded in locked racks or in locked pistol cases in a locked steel trunk. My ammunition is stored in locked boxes on another level of the house. I do not see the need where I live to keep a ready-use firearm. But other people in other places may have that need. This bill would deprive them of that right.
It was exactly this sort of stupidity that landed the District of Columbia in front of the Supreme Court and got them slapped down in front of the nation. Vote this one down, please.
SB 43897A and SB 5005. They concern requiring all pistols sold in New York to be equipped with "micro-stamping technology." In practice, this would ban handgun sales in New York because no manufacturer makes guns with this technology; a technology that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has reported DOES NOT WORK. It's back-door gun control. It's probably in violation of the Second Amendment because it infringes on the right of citizens to keep and bear arms.
I ask that you vote Nay on these two bills.
SB 4752 would outlaw any .50 caliber firearm using fixed ammunition, that is, cartridges. This bill was introduced in the 2008 session as well and was voted down because it was so badly written it would have outlawed everything from the "big boomers" firing .50 BMG ammo to .50 caliber hunting revolvers, blackpowder firearms of all types and any shotgun larger than .410 gauge.
SB 4752 is aimed at outlawing the "big boomers," and it's as poorly written as its predecessor. At least this time the anti-gunners who wrote it are mandating that the rifles be turned in and their owners paid full market value for them; and it exempts blackpowder firearms. That does not make the bill any better. It still would outlaw shotguns and hunting revolvers, even though that may not be the intent of the people that wrote it and sponsored it.
I urge you to vote this badly written and ill-intended bill down .
SB 4753 would expand the restrictions on concealed carry to include any park or recreation area. The potential for abuse inherent in this bill that would attack the honest pistol owners of New York while doing nothing to stop the criminals who carry pistols is immense. Please vote NO on this bill.
SB 5228 would outlaw any handgun capable of being fired by a child of five years old or less. In practice, this would outlaw private ownership of all handguns in New York State. It is asinine on the face of it and definitely violates the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution .It is absolutely back-door gun control, and it should be voted down. Vote NO on this bill.
SB 5489 would change the requirements for issuance of a pistol license to include "training." Safety training is already required by the counties in New York State and you have to produce a certificate certifying that you passed a certified training course (usually run by NRA pistol instructors - not an easy qualification to get, by the way) before the issuing authority will even accept your application. This is an unnecessary law. Bad law is worse than no law. Please vote NO on this bill.
In short, Senator, please vote NO on every last anti-gun bill currently up for consideration by the New York State Senate. Thank you for your attention.
Thank you for reminding me why I left NY State in 1978. Taxes, taxes and stupid, ridiculous gun laws.
I was born in NY in 1939 and lived there until 1978. It's a beautiful state with a lot going for it but as long as it's run by the liberals I'll stay here in Florida.
I can buy a pistol without a permit. Imagine that.
I can change my route to the firing range without violating the terms of a permit...imagine that.
I can use my pistol for protection, carrying in my car, target practice, camping, fishing, plinking and hammering in nails without a special permit for each situation without getting permission from a judge. Imagine that.
Does NY still have the "Sullivan Law" that is supposed to keep crime down while taking away the homeowner's right to defend themselves?
Thank you for reminding me why I left NY State in 1978. Taxes, taxes and stupid, ridiculous gun laws.
I was born in NY in 1939 and lived there until 1978. It's a beautiful state with a lot going for it but as long as it's run by the liberals I'll stay here in Florida.
I can buy a pistol without a permit. Imagine that.
I can change my route to the firing range without violating the terms of a permit...imagine that.
I can use my pistol for protection, carrying in my car, target practice, camping, fishing, plinking and hammering in nails without a special permit for each situation without getting permission from a judge. Imagine that.
Does NY still have the "Sullivan Law" that is supposed to keep crime down while taking away the homeowner's right to defend themselves?
New York City does. The rest of the state still retains some sanity and issues pistol permits for life instead of the five year renewal crap NYC and Westchester County foist on their residents (I rather hesitate to call them citizens). Depending on which county you are in upstate, you may be able to get a CCW valid anywhere in New York State except Sodom-on-Hudson and the restricted buildings (schools, courthouses, government buildings and such) with minimal trouble. Other places, you have to convince a judge you have a need for a CCW. Myself, I'm waiting for the Thune Amendment or a similar national concealed carry reciprocity bill to pass before I go talk to the judge about it. I don't need to carry full time, but it would be nice to be able to take a pistol or two with me when I visit friends out of state and go target-shooting.
The Special Session was entirely concerned with New York City bills dealing with Mayoral control of the NYC schools. There were five of them, all of them passed, and the antigun bills were not brought up. As the State Legislature is now out of session until next January unless they are called back again by the Governor or the Senate Majority Leader and Speaker of the State Assembly (unlikely, the staffer I spoke to assured me; it's a major pain to call a special session and it's not done casually), these bills are dead until the next session.
Further. as the Senate Majority Leader does not have much of a majority (aone vote majority, I was told), he's not likely to either call a special session to deal with gun bills or to let bills as controversial as these come up for a vote if he can help it. There's a State Senate election coming up in 2010 and he knows it. So we have a little breathing space, but we cannot let our guard down. Until we get a Supreme Court ruling that kills off the anti's forever, the price of our personal freedom is perpetual vigilence.
