Pistol Permit Recertification  by Tom Reynolds

As you should know, the new Hochul laws on recertifying your pistol permit take effect on September 1^st.   (Next Thursday.)  They’ll make the process horrendously onerous, time consuming and expensive.  In addition, there is all kind of confusion about its implementation. 

Since the law does not take effect until September 1^st, several SCOPE members have tried recertifying early, to see what would happen. For example, their recertifying due date might have been December 31, 2022, which is after the September 1, 2022 effective date of the new law and thus would be subject to that law.  Instead, they tried recertifying early on August 20^th.  It worked!  The recertification is good for 5 years instead of the 3 years under the new law.

The only drawback is that the recertifying date is now August 20, 2027.  So, they lost a couple months of time but picked up five years before having the expense and time of the new law when recertifying. 

We don’t know how far in advance one could successfully recertify.

What we don’t know is if NY will try to strike back at people who avoided the new law when they recertified early.  That effort seems unlikely, but Kickback Kathy and her minions really hate legal guns.  (Illegal ones don’t seem to bother her as her efforts are aimed at legal ones.)

Adding to the confusion, the permitting section of the law is being challenged in the lawsuit Antonyuk v Bruen (which is sponsored by GOA-NY and to which SCOPE has contributed financially).  A decision from the judge is anticipated next week – before September 1^st.  It is hoped that the judge will stop implementation of the law.  But it’s complicated.  The judge could put a temporary stop or a permanent stop on the law and in either case NY State will appeal.  In addition, the stop might apply to the entire law or only part of it. 

Since it won’t cost any more to recertify early and might delay the cost for five years if the law should stay in force, the only drawback is losing time on the recertification date.  Each gun owner will have to decide for themselves what that means to them.

Propaganda About the Recent Special Elections

The liberal propaganda mill is trying to “make hay” out of the two NY Congressional special elections held on August 23rd.  But they can’t get facts straight and, as usual, you should not believe what they say - there’s more to it. 

Republican Joe Sempolinski won the special election in the current NY 23^rd Congressional District by 53% to 47%, a 6 point victory.  But several media have painted this as a defeat for Republicans since they incorrectly say the district is rated R+12, which would mean Sempolinski underperformed expectations by 6% points.  However, Sempolinski was running in the current 23^rd which is only R+4.  So, he overperformed by 2 points.  After redistricting, it’s the new 23^rd that is an R+12.  Apparently, the liberal media can’t get their facts straight.  Surprise!  Surprise!

In the NY 19^th Congressional district, the Democrat Ryan won 51% to 49%, a 2 point democrat victory.  The district is rated R+2 so the Democrat flipped expectations by 4 points – on the face of it - and the liberal media is trumpeting it as a repudiation of any “Red Wave” in November. 

The R rating comes from the average of the last two presidential elections and that is the monkey wrench in the 19th.  Trump won the district big in 2016 while Biden won small in 2020.  The average of the two elections is Republicans by 2 points because of the size of Trump’s victory in 2016.  But the district was moving left by 2018; a Democrat has held that congressional seat in the last two congressional elections and won by 12 points in 2020.  In reality, the district had moved left. A 2 point victory for the democrat – down from 12 points in the previous election - might indicate the district is swinging back Republican, especially since special elections have low turn outs that may not be reflective of all voters. 

Does it mean much on a national basis?  Probably not.  But the left’s propaganda machine wants to “psych out” Republicans and it needs to be answered.