A7771 and S3018; Experiments in Idiocy by Tom Reynolds
In the NY legislature, proposed Assembly bill A7771 and companion Senate bill S3018 “…requires a person to apply for a hunting license prior to the purchase of a shotgun or rifle…taking a five hour gun safety course and exam…passing a shooting range test with 90% accuracy…providing notarized proof of a passed drug test and mental health evaluation…providing proof of purchase of firearm and ammunition safe storage depositories and passing a criminal background check”.
The sponsor of the bill, Chantel Jackson, is an Assemblywoman from the heavily Democrat 79th District of the Bronx. The Bronx, as a part of NY City, has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation. From a personal standpoint, she brags on her Assembly web site that she was a single mom because her boyfriend was serving 4 years in prison on drug charges.
Under the section of the bill called “Justification”, Jackson writes,“…many New Yorkers are rushing to protect their families and homes by applying for pistol permits in order to purchase a firearm. Although the need to have protection is understandable, the notion that every citizen should possess a firearm is absurd”.
In her first sentence, she gives a good reason to own a firearm and in the second sentence she says it is “understandable”, but then she contradicts herself and says all that is “absurd”. She never gives a reason why wanting to protect a person’s family is “absurd”. The left doesn’t have to explain its absurd statements, they just make ‘em.
She then points out that, “New York is one of six states whose constitution does not explicitly protect the right of the people to keep and bear arms”. That is very narrowly correct when taken out of context, something the Left does very well. Chapter 6, Article 2, Section 4 of New York’s Civil rights Law does say, “Right to keep and bear arms. A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms cannot be infringed”. That probably sounds familiar to you? Obviously, Jackson is also familiar with the 2nd Amendment, (the wording if not the meaning) since she points out that it is not in NY’s Constitution. But she seems to have missed the 14th Amendment, which applies all of the Bill of Rights, including the 2nd Amendment, to the states. Therefore, it is of no consequence if it is in or out of NY’s Constitution; 2A still is governing constitutional law in NY State.
Jackson is apparently familiar with the sayings of Barack Obama and various other leftist gun grabbers who believe it is easier to buy an apple than a gun. She adds under justification, “This legislation will implement changes to the process by which licensing for a firearm can be obtained...Perhaps making the process a tad bit more detailed and lengthier may also assist in discouraging purchases made in anger”.
A “tad bit more detailed and lengthier”! Apparently, Jackson never tried to legally purchase a firearm before she became an Assemblywoman. Has she ever heard of NYSRPA v Bruen? It’s been in all the papers, lately. Her bill would take legally purchasing a gun in the Bronx from rare to nearly impossible and in Upstate NY from difficult to overwhelmingly burdensome. And as to purchasing a gun in anger, under her bill a person’s anger will likely be redirected from its original target towards a government that is denying a constitutional right by making it unduly burdensome and expensive. If purchasing an apple were more difficult than buying a gun, apple growers in NY would be out of business.
There are some lessons here: when gun owners don’t vote, these are the people who get elected to hold office and make the laws; the Left never stops trying to do a work-around on the 2nd Amendment. I would add that all politicians and their advisors should be forced to study constitutional law, but they would just ignore it, as they currently do.
