NYSRPA

Some of our friends in the legislature are making some noise on our issues.

Assembly Codes Committee agenda for Tuesday, May 22:

• A-3929, Clarifies that licenses to carry firearms may be issued to non-resident individuals.
• A-6083, Authorizes the possession and use of a single shot .22 caliber rifle by a person eleven years of age on a rifle range while supervised at an indoor or outdoor shooting range.
• A-9086, Creates a process for the issuance of a temporary permit to carry or possess a firearm for persons who are not residents of the state of New York; provides an affirmative defense to possession of a loaded firearm by certain persons and provides reciprocity for persons licensed in other states.
• A-9719, Allows individuals, duly licensed out-of-state to carry a pistol or firearm, authority to carry such weapon within New York state for a limited duration with proper documentation.

Senate Code s Committee agenda for Tuesday, May 22:

• S-2361, Provides that restrictions regarding the carrying of  concealed weapons and licenses therefor shall be by statute only.  This one isn’t so good as it does not make the state shall issue and licensing agents may simply refuse to issue any licenses if they are not permitted to restrict them.

The headline says it all, “Alarm Grows Among Dems About Obama’s Chances“:

“It has taken months of bad news, but Democrats increasingly believe that President Obama might just lose his re-election bid.  The latest wake-up call comes in the form of a New York Times/CBS poll showing Republican Mitt Romney in the lead not just among registered voters overall, but with women and independents …”

That’s good, but I’m still not seeing the love for Romney.  I think his increasing numbers have more to do with disgust with Obama as opposed to support for Romney, especially with gun owners.  Romney needs to close the deal.  He could do that either by picking a solid gun guy as his running mate and/or supporting the reciprocity bill in Congress.  Just a a short and sweet statement like “As President I would sign H.R  822 into law.”  Anything more than that would come across as sucking up and not be believable considering his less than perfect record on the issue.

It looks as if Mark Schimel won’t run against his estranged wife Assemblywoman Michelle Schimel afterall.

It’s still early so maybe the GOP will still be able to field a strong challenger for her this fall.

Here is the video Mayor Bloomberg paid for featuring Trayvon Martin’s mother. It’s part of his newest antigun initiative against self-defense laws.

Given Bloomberg does not have all the facts on the case, it’s a bit odd that he’s chosen to pick sides on it.  If there is solid evidence that George Zimmerman acted in self-defense as he claims, Mayor Mike is going to look really stupid.

/a

A cage match would seem more appropriate:

“The War of the Roses is erupting on Long Island, where a Nassau County man is set to challenge his estranged wife for state Assembly.  Mark Schimel has been given the Nassau County GOP nomination to seek the Great Neck seat that currently belongs to his estranged wife — Democrat Michelle Schimel …”

I was hoping they’d put up a decent candidate to run against her as she is prime sponsor of microstamping and most of the antigun crap in the Assembly.

“… Frank Moroney, the North Hempstead town GOP chairman, admitted there were concerns the race could degenerate into a bitter, personal battle, but insisted the GOP leaders urged him several times to keep it classy.  “One of the things we made clear is we want this to be a very dignified, issue-oriented campaign,” Moroney said …”

Not likely.  While it may have some entertainment value I seriously doubt she’s going to be challenged on her positions, especially gun control.

Legislative Report #20 is now online.

Obama looks to be picking a gun fight he does not need.  Fox News reports:

“President Barack Obama has threatened to veto a Department of Justice appropriations bill House Republicans passed because, among other things, it includes a provision that blocks a gun control law his administration used Operation Fast and Furious to pass.  The Obama administration’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives wrote, and began implementing, a new rule that would require gun dealers in the four U.S. states that border Mexico to report sales of multiple semi-automatic rifles to the ATF.  In the 2013 fiscal year budget for the Department of Justice and related agencies, House Republicans inserted a rider, or condition, that would force the ATF to not implement that rule …”

First off,  ATF simply does not have the legal authority to implement that rule.  This alone should have been enough to keep the Administration from getting involved with it in the first place.  Although NRA lost their first lawsuit against it, they are appealing.

Second, the “Fast and Furious” gun running scandal is a hot issue which isn’t just going to go away.  It looks as if Eric Holder is going to be charged with contempt of Congress over his refusal to provide satisfactory answers over it.  It makes no sense for Obama to bring up an issue where it appears likely that a top official in his administration is going to be hit with criminal charges.

Third, this plays right into the NRA’s election strategy of painting him as a gun grabber.  He’s already in trouble with the voters and the antigun label is going to cost him even more votes.  He lost 40% of the West Virginia Democrat primary to a guy who is in jail.

There is no way for Obama to put a positive spin on this.  What was he thinking when he made his veto threat?

NSSF rep. Jake McGuigan brought up an interesting fact at today’s Sportsmen’s Caucus’ breakfast: CoBIS was costing gun makers $7 per gun to ship compliant guns into New York with spent shell casings.  Over it’s 11 year lifetime that adds up to gun owners paying an extra $2.5 million dollars on top of the estimated $4 million taxpayer dollars spent each year to keep CoBIS up and running.  Total damage: approximately $47 million dollars wasted.

Former President Bill Clinton has advice for Obama on how to deal with the gun issue:

“President Barack Obama should not bother trying to pass gun-control legislation because the issue is partly cultural and Obama is from an urban area, former President Bill Clinton said Thursday … The former president said Obama is from Chicago and “he was in the state Senate from the most liberal district in Chicago.”  Clinton said he was able to sign the 1993 Brady handgun law, which mandated federal background checks for gun buyers, because he was from Arkansas, had grown up among hunters and had hunted in his youth.  ”I knew what to do,” Clinton said. “They couldn’t turn me into some freak, and I went after them.” …”

Bullshit.  Clinton had a big majority in Congress, just like Obama started with, and used it to push through unpopular programs (Brady and the AWB), just like Obama did (ObamaCare and Porkulus), and the result was scores of Democrats getting booted out of office in ’94, and again in ’08.  That is the real reason Obama hasn’t been going after gun owners: he learned from Clinton’s mistake not to mess with gun owners.  He did not learn not to push other wildly unpopular ideas on the American people.

Bill Clinton has a admitted previously that his gun control agenda cost the Democrats the House in ’94 and Al Gore the presidency in 2000.  There’s no need for him to say stuff like this.

Roy McDonald was one of the handful of Republican Senators to vote in favor of gay marriage last year, a move that did not make him any friends especially after his campaign contributions were examined.

Facing a primary fight in a new district, Capitol Confidential reports on a full color mailing his campaign has done to the new district in hopes of shoring up his support among gun owners:

“… Complete with a picture of the senator as a young man on a hunting trip with his dad, the piece notes McDonald’s pro-sportsman votes as well as his opposition to micro-stamping … The letter also quotes McDonald as referring to moves for more gun laws as “misguided liberal interests” …”

The Times reports that Mitt Romney meet with Mayor Bloomberg:

“… On Tuesday, Mitt Romney had a private breakfast with Mr. Bloomberg at the headquarters of the mayor’s philanthropic foundation on Manhattan’s Upper East Side … Over coffee and juice, the two discussed several staples of Mr. Bloomberg’s agenda in Washington over the last decade: the economy, immigration, education and even gun control (a topic on which the two man are not entirely on the same page) …”

I would like to know whose dumb idea it was to have Romney sit down with Bloomberg.  The man brings nothing positive to the table.

“… His imprimatur could be useful to either candidates, conveying the approval of a businessman known for his common-sense and nonpartisan governing style …”

LOL!  Only the New York Times believes that.  The rest of America, when they think of Bloomberg (if they think of him at all), they think of an arrogant, statist control freak from a liberal la-la land.  This was not a good move for Romney.

Brian Kolb sent out an e-mail alert yesterday via the Assembly Minority Sportsmen’s Caucus list warning about the mandatory firearms storage bill A-3292 being on the Assembly calendar.

The bill itself isn’t new, going back like 20 years, nor is its placement on the calendar a surprise.  What is new is that I believe this is the first time any state legislator made the effort to publicly warn the gun community ahead of time that a bad bill was under consideration.  It is a small, but significant step forward for our side.

Since Dan Gross took over as head of the Brady Campaign I haven’t heard that much from him.  Here is the first television interview I’ve seen of him on the leftist media outlet Current TV (which is owned by Al Gore.)

Despite the fact that yesterday’s gun control rally was sparsely attended and didn’t seem to generate much attention outside of this report from the Albany Fox affiliate, I did feel the need to send out a press release on it:

The New York State Rifle & Pistol Association calls yesterday’s gun control rally inside the Legislative Office Building a total farce. Unable to demonstrate any sort of public support for their proposals, antigun legislators and New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, held a dog-and-pony show in the Well of the state legislative office building for a handful of people who were bused in from New York City.

Addressing scores of vacant seats in an almost empty hall, legislators lined up to speak to the couple of dozen or so people who had skipped school in order to be there, and reiterated their support for the same, failed gun control policies they have been promoting for years to an increasingly skeptical public.

By contrast, the rally sponsored by NYSRPA on March 20 attracted several thousand attendees from all across the state. Those concerned citizens gave up time from their families and their jobs to travel to Albany at their own expense to demonstrate their support for their civil rights.

“It is crystal clear where the public stands on the issue of gun rights in New York,” said President Tom King. “They stand with NYSRPA and the NRA! It is high time for legislators to stop pretending and pandering to fringe elements pushing their anti-civil rights agenda in Albany.”

Last month a couple thousand people from all over the state came to Albany to lobby for gun rights.  Today New Yorkers Against Gun Violence had their lobby day.  As you can tell by this shot looking down into the Well, they managed to get a couple dozen people to show up and those had to be bused in from the City.

To the surprise of no-one, Mitt Romney won all of the delegates in yesterday’s primary.  With Newt Gingrich hinting that he will drop out of the race soon, talk has shifted to who might be Romney’s running mate.

VSSA notices that Governor Bob McDonnell appears to be trying to raise his profile.  NRA rated him an A when he ran for Governor back in ’09.

New York magazine asks, “How Much Would a Bloomberg Endorsement Even Help Romney?“:

“The Romney campaign is hoping that early backer John McCain can convince his good friend Michael Bloomberg to cough up an endorsement for the presumed Republican presidential nominee …”

Why?  Bloomberg is the last person Romney needs to associate with.  He’s a uber antigun, nanny-state, control freak.

Billionaire John Catsimatidis has often been mentioned as a possible Republican candidate for New York City Mayor.  It’s common knowledge he carries a gun (because a prerequisite for obtaining an unrestricted NYC pistol license is to be filthy rich and politically connected.)  Gothamist interviewed him and he makes some statements about gun ownership:

“… I believe that law-abiding, mentally healthy citizens—after a waiting time and a real test of abilities and a real test of everything, with no bad history in their background—should have the right to bear arms … I think that “Stand Your Ground” laws need a lot of modification.  I had a problem in one of my homes where I had a break-in at two o’clock in the morning.  I didn’t have my gun with me and if I did, I could have protected my family and I would have probably blown the guy’s head off. Look, at the time it happened, my daughter was 17 years old, my son was 14 years old and one has to protect his family.  If somebody breaks into your home and you don’t know what their intent is, one should have the right to have a gun in their home and protect their family …”

This isn’t much but probably as good as we’d get out a candidate.  He’s way better than Ray Kelly whose name is being floated by some Republicans.

New York holds its Republican presidential primary tomorrow. Given that Mitt Romney pretty much has the GOP nomination wrapped up it isn’t expected to generate much attention.  That did not stop Rudy Giuliani from inserting himself into the race by endorsing Romney today.