New York State May 2008

The Assembly Democrats are such elitist zealots in their opposition to the Second Amendment that they will stop at nothing to take away our constitutional rights," said New York State Conservative Party Chairman Mike Long. "Today, it's our legal firearms and the right of small business owners to make an honest living. What's next?

"Assembly Democrats have consistently targeted the legitimate sale and possession of firearms while ignoring the dangerous threat of illegal gun dealers," said Long. "It's been said before and it's worth noting again, guns don't kill people - people kill people. Let's toughen penalties for illegal gun traffickers and the real criminals who prey on innocent victims and stop treading on law-abiding citizens."

Long noted that legislation passed by Assembly Democrats could cause legal firearms sellers, many of whom operate small family-owned establishments, to go out of business due to the hefty expense of paying for these unfunded mandates and sizable fines.

"Today's action represents yet another burden upon taxpayers and legal gun owners and distributors and another strange day in the reign of the Assembly Democrat Majority who seem to legislate in a bubble far-removed from the daily struggles of the hard-working middle class families of our state," said Mike Long.

I agree with what Mr. Long has said above and what follows is a listing of the bills passed in the Assembly and why they are no good do not and will not curb criminal misuse but will add further injury and insult to the law abiding citizens of New York State. Assembly Democrats voted on a package of anti-Second Amendment and anti-constitutional measures that infringe on the rights of legal gun owners and dealers. These anti-gun measures passed the New York State Assembly and are now heading to the State Senate, where they will most likely be referred to the State Senate Codes Committee. After reading them and my response to each of them you MUST do something with this information. You must immediately contact 3 NYS Senators. You must do this NOW! Time is not on our side and we need to communicate our anger and frustration to this legislation. Pass this information on to your friends to Gun Clubs and Gun Stores to use in our fight.

It is critical that all of these measures are voted down in the New York State Senate in order to protect the Second Amendment rights of all gun-owners in New York State. The third NYS Senator is your Senator. Make a copy of what ever you send to Senators Bruno and Volker asking them to reject this legislation for the reasons you gave and send it to your Senator and ask him to also reject any attempt to pass this terrible legislation in the NYS Senate. Ask all 3 Senators that if they cannot or will not support your request to reject this legislation ask them to explain why not. You have a right to know what they do in our name and supposedly for our benefit. And if they can support your request, don't forget to say Thank You! You should find your Senators name and local address in the blue pages of your phone book. You can also go the New York State Senate website and simply type in your zip code and it will tell you who your State Senator is and their local address and e-mail address. http://www.senate.state.ny.us/senatehomepage.nsf/Home?OpenForm

Assembly Bill A-76, sponsored by State Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg (D-20), would require the mandatory storage of all firearms. A-76 passed by a vote of 95 to 35. OPPOSED! Current state laws regarding negligence and especially negligent care of small children are more than sufficient to address any truly negligent behavior on the part of a parent or guardian. As with many other anti-gun proposals the memorandum of justification in support of this bill is full of faulty and intentionally misleading information so as to justify the proposal for this unneeded and unnecessary legislation. It would seem by this proposal that none of those who support this bill truly care one wit about the safety and well being of a child's exposure to any of the other dangerous and life threatening substances in and around the home or of the negligent behavior of the parents or guardians. Their only concern is if a home contains a firearm. And that seems to me to be hypocritical!

Assembly Bill A-829, sponsored by State Assemblyman Steve Englebright (D-4), this bill would prohibit the sale of any handgun that doesn't contain a childproofing device or mechanism incorporated into the design of the handgun. A-829 passed by a vote of 86 to 46. OPPOSED! For all the reasons stated in opposing A-76 and because this bill is completely bogus and false. A firearm with a child proofing device is anything an individual firearm owner chooses to use to safeguard their firearms. In some cases that would be a stand alone safe, in others it could be a lockable dresser draw or an individual lockable gun case. Suppose there are no children in the household, should you then be required to get something you don't need in order to secure your personal firearm? Suppose, the idea of safe guarding the firearm is simply carrying it on your person at all times while at home and there by preventing all who are not or should not have access from coming upon it. It has said many times and it has been proven that the best safety device for any kind of firearm is individual education. The NRA has trained over 21 million children in safe and responsible firearms ownership and handling all over the USA. If these legislators are truly interested in child safety with and around firearms why won't they let New York State adopt the NRA Eddie Eagle Gun Safety program and institute it in all schools throughout New York? It has proven its value and effectiveness over the past 20 + years all over the country. The reason these anti-gun legislators do not adopt the NRA program is because the program addresses safety and safety only. These anti-gun fanatics want a program that demonizes guns and gun owners as evil and bad and that is simply not the truth.

Assembly Bill A-2772A, authored by State Assemblywoman Patricia Eddington (D-3), would ban the sale, use or possession of any firearm with a bore diameter .50 caliber or larger. This bill would require gun owners in possession of these firearms to surrender them to law enforcement. A-2772A passed by a vote of 90 to 49. OPPOSED! No .50 caliber bullet has been used to commit any crime so far. Can they be used? Of course but have they been used in the past 50 years? The answer is no! Based on this philosophy all firearms which are capable of being used in a crime should outlawed and if you have not been paying attention, that is the ultimate goal of these anti-gun fanatics. By the way, any firearm with a bore diameter (their language) of .50 and over includes all shotguns 16 gauge and over. You heard that right, all shotguns 16 gauge and over. One of the main insults is this proposal does attach only to criminal misuse of a .50 cal firearm only. In other words it (this bill) creates the new crime to own, possess and/or simply use lawfully any .50 caliber firearm. Traditionally we have never been in opposition to added sentences for convicted criminals who use this type of firearm in the commission of a serious crime. Another point of particular importance is the fact that there is no grandfather provision in this proposal. That is to say there is no provision for those who already have these types of firearms in their possession to be able to keep them, and that includes dealers. It does offer some restitution but it may not be enough to properly reimburse the cost of the firearm and the necessary accessories. But the real issue here is no one should be looking for a grandfather clause or provision because any such clause would not allow other family members and/or next of kin or succeeding generations in a family the right to own and use a perfectly legal lawful firearm. Accepting any kind of grandfather clause or provision as a condition to accepting this bill or any similar type of bill is nothing less than surrendering yours and the future generation's rights to own and use firearms lawfully. We have the obligation and responsibility to protect and preserve the future generation's rights as our forefathers did for us.

Assembly Bill A-3447, introduced by State Assemblyman David Koon (D-135), would ban the sale or possession of frangible ammunition. A-3447 passed by a vote of 85 to 40. OPPOSED! It is my limited understanding that this particular type of ammunition was created for the purpose of making sure that a bullet fired at someone would not pass through that person and continue on to an innocent third party. That using this type of ammo would break apart after hitting (in our case) any criminal aggressor or if missing the aggressor a wall so that no one would needlessly be injured. Once again there is no connection to a crime or this type of ammo being used in a criminal act. This bill creates an entirely new crime of simple possession even when owned and possibly used by a lawful person doing nothing more than defending themselves or their families or their business.

Assembly Bill A-3451, introduced by State Assemblyman David Koon (D-135), would expand New York's failed ballistic imaging program. A-3451 passed by a vote of 79 to 49. OPPOSED! This system has been the law of the land since the year 2000 and the State of New York has spent many millions of our tax payers' dollars to do nothing. It is my understanding that not a single case has been made using this unreliable system to convict any criminal. We told the legislature when it was originally proposed that it was and continues to be an expensive unreliable feel good system. The most it is capable of doing is tracing a gun back to its last lawful owner, nothing more. You know, just like tracing a stolen car back to its last lawful owner before it was used in a crime. By the way, did you all just notice I said used in a crime and not caused a crime? Firearms do not cause crime any more than forks & spoons cause people to overeat or pencils & pens cause misspellings. People and people only cause crimes.

Assembly Bill A-6525A, sponsored by State Assemblywoman Amy Paulin (D-88), S-2404A, sponsored by Eric Schneiderman (D-31)would create new sales and reporting requirements for licensed firearms dealers and require dealers to carry a minimum of $1,000,000.00 of liability insurance. A-6525A passed by a vote of 85 to 53. Companion bill S-2404A is alive and well in the Senate. OPPOSED! This bill does nothing more than heap unrealistic financial burdens on lawful firearms dealers that do nothing except to put legitimate businessmen and women out of business. If passed it would pass on to the consumer the ultimate cost of these unworkable ideas. Ideas that come from people who by their own admission know little to nothing about firearms. The requirement to buy a minimum liability insurance policy for $1,000,000.00 dollars for any wrongful or accidental usage of a firearm by a third party is just plain crazy. As a matter of fact just a year ago a federal law was passed making it illegal to hold responsible a manufacturer or supplier or dealer for the wrongful or accidental use of a firearm by a third party. This bill would also do away with the ability of a dealer to sell firearms at a Gun Show which is legally permissible by federal law. This bill creates mandatory firearms training before anyone can buy a firearm and the training program will be the one promulgated by the State Police Commissioner, who is a person I did not hire and whom I cannot fire and may not be the most qualified person to create this program. After all the NRA has the best, most effective training and general firearms education program of anyone and they are not even mentioned. This is just one of the many additional unreasonable and unnecessary burdens this bill attempts to place on the firearms dealers of this state. Most of this bill is an insult to all the lawful firearms dealers in the state who are already doing most of what is in this bill.

Assembly Bill A-7331, sponsored by State Assemblyman Matthew Titone (D-61), would expand the ban on semi-automatic "assault weapons", as well as require the ballistic "fingerprinting"(registration) of all semi-automatic "assault weapons" owned prior to a specified date. A-7331 passed by a vote of 85 to 46. OPPOSED! There is no such thing as an assault weapon. Assault behavior can only be done by a person and whatever they may use to inflict injury or death is a weapon, but there is no such thing as an assault weapon that is owned by the poor unsuspecting public. Once again the anti gun fanatics are trying to suggest that certain types of firearms will change a persons' personality from a law-abiding citizen to one of a blood crazed killer. If that were true we would have literally hundreds of thousands statewide murders and millions of firearms related murders nationwide, but we don't. To suggest that a certain type of firearm is capable turning good people into bad people is not only absurd but insulting and intentionally misleading. This bill would add the requirement of ballistic fingerprinting to an already failed COBIS system (See the reasons spelled out above in A-3451) by adding those firearms currently classified as semi-automatic assault weapons even though no such weapons exist.

Assembly Bill A9543A, introduced by Michael Gianaris (D-36) this bill would amend the General Business Law by adding a new section 390-d and would require all purchasers of any antique firearms to undergo a background check as required of other firearms. This proposal gives our current anti-gun Attorney General to use his considerable authority to bring an action against an individual with a civil penalty of $10,000.00 dollars and no proof shall be required that any person has been injured thereby nor that the defendant intentionally violated this provision of law. OPPOSED! This seems like a back door approach to creating a kangaroo court of sorts that the standard and reasonable rules of procedure and protections of a typical court would not exist. This bill was introduced with the stated purpose of closing a loophole that only exists in the minds of those people who know little to nothing about firearms ownership, possession and use or who have a personal hatred for these implements in general. I am constantly amazed at how members of the State Legislature write proposed law changes and use as references people who know little to nothing about firearms or the laws governing them. I mean if I wanted to build a building I would use the services and advice from the experts who build buildings. And if I were to want to build a bridge, again I would use the expertise of those who build bridges. Why is it then in the arena of firearms law, the legislators routinely use amateurs and those who have a lot of feelings about the issue but who have no real working knowledge on the subject. This bill is supposed to keep those who are not legally allowed to own a rifle, shotgun, pistol or black powder muzzle loading firearm from being able to purchase them. Anyone who can read a newspaper or hear a news report should know by now that anyone bent on getting a firearm of any kind in order to commit a crime will get it regardless of the laws in effect. However, this new proposal will just add another level of bureaucracy that only law abiding people will have to put up with. The bill cites 2 examples of possession of a muzzle loading gun and in only 1 instance was it used to actually commit a crime. How many hundreds of thousands of these types of firearms are and have been in the hands of sane and rational law abiding people and who have caused no crime what so ever? And what ever happened to the idea that the person who committed the crime is and should be the only one held accountable for any misuse? I was under the impression that murder, attempted murder and any other crime where a firearm was used is already against the law?

Assembly Bill A-9819A, authored by State Assemblywoman Michelle Schimel (D-16), would ban the sale of semi-automatic handguns not equipped with so-called "micro-stamping" technology. The bill requires all semiautomatic pistols sold in the state to micro stamp an array of characters that identify the make, model, and serial number of the pistol on the firing pin, which would copy the characters onto the cartridge case upon firing. A-9819A passed by a vote of 90 to 43. We OPPOSE this nonsense because all it is capable of doing is tracing a firearm back to its last lawful owner and not the criminal. It has absolutely no impact on criminal behavior before the fact and offers no punishment after the fact for the criminal. But it just might make an otherwise lawful person a criminal. Keep in mind the goal here is not to punish bad guys but to make bad guys of all of us lawful gun owners by connecting the misuse of firearms with lawful firearms ownership. Additionally this so-called technology is easily overcome by any dedicated criminal. But let's not let the facts get in the way of truly bad anti gun legislation. A number of states are rejecting this so called technology because it is imperfect and is more liable to be wrong than right. Again the purpose of this bill is not to punish criminal misuse but to punish anyone who enjoys firearms ownership and use.