By Tom Reynolds

In November, the voters of New York will be asked a question that they are asked every twenty years; do the people of New York want a Constitutional convention held for the purpose of amending the New York Constitution. This is a complex decision and should not be taken lightly. It could have a significant impact on 2nd Amendment rights in New York as well as multiple other issues, since the convention is not limited as to what it can address: if they want to address gun rights, they can; if they want to address any other issue, they can; the field is wide open since the convention determines its own rules. In other words, there could be a runaway convention. On the other hand, this may be an opportunity for Bill of Rights advocates. 

First, understand that the NY Constitution is much longer and has more specific detail than the US Constitution. New York cannot lessen any rights guaranteed by the US Constitution but this does not stop the state from trying to do that in clever ways. The state can expand upon rights, too. Any New York amendments can be challenged as unconstitutional under the US Constitution but because they are a part of the NY Constitution, they cannot be challenged under NY law as unconstitutional. What can occur under NY law is that two parts of the NY Constitution can disagree, which gets ugly. 

There are four steps to this process: step 1 -in November 2017 the voters decide if they want a constitutional convention held; step 2 - if approved, in November 2018 the voters elect delegates to the convention; step 3 -in April 2019, the convention is held; step 4 - in November 2019 (probably) the voters in a statewide election vote on accepting or rejecting any proposed amendments that came out of the convention. 

Each NY Senate district is entitled to 3 convention delegates elected by the voters in each district, (63 districts times 3 delegates each equals 189 delegates). Plus, there will be 15 at large delegates chosen by a statewide vote for a total of 204 total delegates. That is a lot of delegates! And you can be sure there will be some extremists and whackos. Remember, political jokes sometimes get elected! Those are the hard facts about it. After that it gets complicated. Really complicated! 

There are 63 NY Senate districts and Republicans control 31, the Democrats control 31 and 1 Brooklyn Senator ran as both a Republican and Democrat but he sits with the Republicans, which gives the Republicans a 1 vote majority. If this template holds true, the 189 delegates from districts might be fairly evenly split. The 15 At-Large delegates are the problem. New York State is a Democratic controlled state because NY City is overwhelmingly Democratic even though Upstate voter registrations are close between Republicans and Democrats. Since 2nd Amendment proponents tend to be Republicans, it will be difficult – but not impossible - to get pro-gun Republicans elected to the 15 statewide offices as well as getting any pro-gun amendments approved in the statewide election that is step 4. Books could be written on the various possibilities under this, so I will not expand on it here. 

It is reasonable to say that the grassroots pro 2nd Amendment people (us) are not happy with the political establishment in New York. It continues to disappoint us. Why is this important for the Constitutional Convention? Because the political establishment will be positioned to nominate convention delegates that reflect the establishment’s interests and not our interests. If we are to have a Constitutional Convention, we must be prepared to work to get 2A delegates on the ballot and then elect them. This includes working with other 2A organizations and other Constitutional Rights preservation organizations. We cannot afford political Conscientious Objectors when it comes to getting actively involved in defending 2A.It will take a strong, united effort to get something positive done. A winning strategy will be to sweep the three delegates in Republican districts and win at least one delegate in Democratic districts as a way to offset the probable losses in statewide delegates. 

With all these difficulties, why bother with a Convention? First, the current political establishment in NY has not shown the backbone to effectively work on repealing the Safe Act and safeguarding our rights. A convention could be one way of bypassing them. 

Second, the NY Senate has been much less effective than we like but it has stopped much of the anti-gun craziness that comes out of NY City. If we lose the majority - and as noted above it hangs by the proverbial thread -the Safe Act will endure and there will be “Sons of the Safe Act.” We could lose the majority in the normal course of events, but Cuomo is actively working to move Senate seats out of Upstate and down to NY City. If Upstate loses jobs it loses population and, therefore, after the 2020 census, Upstate will lose Senate seats and Cuomo, DeBlazio and the NY City crazies will reign, unimpeded. Unless something happens to change NY State’s economic policies (Cuomo’s policies) it will happen. A Constitutional Convention may be our last hope. 

One proponent of the NY Constitutional Convention has been the “Divide NY Group”. They recognize that breaking NY into two federally recognized states, (Upstate and the NY City area), is probably not politically possible. What they pro- pose is breaking the state into two regions where each has its own laws; hence, no Safe Act in Upstate. The governor would become relatively symbolic, like the Queen of England. The exact form would be decided in the Constitutional Convention so it could vary but that is the general idea. While the idea is appealing, remember all the cautions in my previous paragraphs. If the political elite and NY City get control of the convention, they could make things even worse. 

While this article has dwelt on the NY Constitutional convention, there is another approach that is worth mentioning, but it is also difficult. Most legislators – but not allare in relatively safe districts. Getting the majority party’s nomination is akin to election. The incumbent establishment in a safe district hate the word “Primary”. It’s difficult to primary an incumbent since the establishment tends to unite behind that incumbent. But to get legislators with pro-2nd Amendment backbones in office, this is another approach. 

If we are to get pro-gun delegates elected to a Constitutional Convention, it will take a grassroots effort in the districts. If we are to primary incumbents, it will also take a grassroots effort in the districts. Do you understand that this is one reason why SCOPE is putting its efforts into chapters and committees instead of the state organization? I, personally, am undecided on how I will vote on a Constitutional Convention but I wanted to share some issues with you to start a conversation within SCOPE while we have some time. As I hope you now realize, this could be a very significant decision for protecting the 2nd Amendment gun rights.