By Tom Reynolds, SCOPE President
On July 23rd, the New York State Senate’s web site reported that the Senate passed a ghost guns bill (S.7763).
One of its sponsors, Senator Brad Hoylman (D) said about it “Retailers report sky-high demand for ghost guns, untraceable weapons that can evade even New York’s historically strong gun safety regulations.”
Another Senator Anna M. Kaplan (D) said that the purpose of the bill was to, “...close the dangerous loopholes that allow untraceable ghost guns to be obtained by people who would otherwise be unable to obtain a legal firearm”.
Stop and read both these statements closely.
“Retailers report sky-high demand for ghost guns, untraceable weapons…” It may shock the Senator to know that retailers, otherwise known as Federal Firearms Licensees (FFL’s), are not allowed to sell untraceable weapons! But it is a different story for your street corner, illegal arms dealer, (now labelled as “retailers” by Senator Hoylman). These “retailers” may indeed have “sky-high demand” for ghost guns, but probably not from law abiding citizens. Of course, all the sales of these street corner, “undocumented retailers” were and are illegal, whether ghost guns or not.
Senator Kaplan says it will “...close the dangerous loopholes that allow untraceable ghost guns to be obtained by people who would otherwise be unable to obtain a legal firearm”. What loopholes allowed people who would “be unable to obtain a legal firearm” to legally obtain a firearm from a licensed FFL? If the law prohibits a person from legally buying a firearm, doesn’t it also prohibit them from illegally buying a firearm?
Remember, laws only stop law abiding citizens. Criminals, by definition, know they are doing something illegal and they are unlikely to be stopped by more laws saying that what they already are illegally doing - is illegal. FFL’s could not sell ghost guns both before and after this law was passed.
Unfortunately, most people reading the Senators’ statements won’t stop to think about the logic of what is being said and, frankly, that’s the point of their carefully crafted political garbage.
Whatever your feelings are on ghost guns (and do you really know what a ghost gun is) New York State laws are being enacted based on misinformation promulgated for political purposes by people who don’t really know much about what they are enacting. No one’s freedom should depend on the behavior of the lawless or the ineptitude of government. Keep this in mind when you evaluate candidates for your vote on November 3rd.
