Pit Bulls and Propaganda  by Tom Reynolds

Why didn’t Republicans win big?  Election history and most major issues were on their side.  Did abortion overshadow crime, inflation and immigration numbers?  Is “it’s the economy” no longer operative?

Or something else?

Fox news is the only reliably Republican / Conservative news channel and it consistently draws about as many viewers as the left-wing cable channels MSNBC and CNN combined.  But, combined, the leftist ABC, CBS and NBC news draws 3 times as many viewers as Fox.  Combine those three with MSNBC and CNN and 4 out of 5 news viewers are getting a left-wing slant on the news. 

Could left wing propaganda, playing constantly, have brain washed voters?

Read a story about election fraud and anything Trump says will have added to it “without proof”.  Question the 2020 election and be labelled “election denier”.

On the other hand, Hakeem Jeffries just replaced Nancy Pelosi as Democrat House Minority Leader.  He tweeted, “The more we learn about 2016 election the more ILLEGITIMATE it becomes. America deserves to know whether we have a FAKE president in the Oval Office. #Russian Interference”.  He sounds like a “2016 election denier” and “Russian Interference” is “without proof”.  How many stories label him as such?

How much coverage did “Russia Collusion” get after it was proven to be a lie?

Hunter Biden’s “computer from hell” and various other accounts tying Joe Biden into using his offices for profit were suppressed.  A few leftist media are admitting the laptop story is true - but then drop it.   

When articles label the 2020 election as stolen, will the media stop adding “without proof”?

How much did those issues influence voters in 2020 - if publicized?

The why and when issues are presented are also worth noting.

Just before the election, every day, there was at least one front page story on a major issue.  Each was written to downplay Republican positions and emphasize Democrat positions; crime, immigration, inflation and the economy were not major problems threatening the core of America but abortion and gun control were huge crises.  

Military recruiting is reported to be down.  Reasons given for that are: mandatory vaccine; labor shortage; low unemployment; schools shut down; not meeting physical educational or moral requirements; criminal records; medical issues.  Notice what’s missing from reporting?  Not a mention of the military going Woke!  Apparently, brainwashing the military into believing they will be putting their life on the line for what the woke says is a racist, white supremacist nation is not a disincentive to joining up.    

Left wing media also waited until post-election to deliver bad news.

After the election, headlines read, “Rising costs straining college athletic budgets”.  Had inflation changed from before the election?  Answer: only that the media did not want to make voters more conscious of inflation before they voted.

Woke Disney announced huge layoffs - after the election.

A crypto currency company – whose founder was a HUGE Democrat donor - collapsed into bankruptcy after the election and billions are missing.  The media is more interested in who Trump dines with.

A post-election newspaper article happily reported that election problems were minimal and proved it…by reporting only on minimal problems.  Somehow, it missed Maricopa County in Arizona.  Try this link for a credible story on major election problems that the media somehow missed: Maricopa's Election Was A Bigger Disaster Than People Realize (thefederalist.com)

In June, the Gannett chain, which owns hundreds of newspapers across the country, scaled back its opinion pages in an effort to combat a perception of Gannett having a political bias. (Ya’ think!) 

Gannett found that young readers in particular "…often can’t tell the difference between news reporting and opinion, especially online," and readers "…often mistakenly believe that news stories are dictated by the paper’s editorial side," according to the Post.  (Mistakenly believe news stories are dictated by the editorial side?)

My local newspaper is a Gannett chain paper.  After Trump’s 2016 election, for the next 21 days there were 20 negative editorials about Trump, one of which was on the front page – and not labelled an editorial.  In that same period there was 1 Trump story that was neutral; not positive but neutral. Maybe there is a reason that young readers can’t tell the difference. 

One of the strategies of the left is to blame their opponents for what they are doing.  Remember all the coverage about “Democracy being on the ballot” which was supposed to convey that it was Republicans endangering Democracy.  Until news becomes reporting and not advocacy, Democracy will be on the ballot but not in a way portrayed by the media. 

Right issue, wrong party.

So, what do we do about it?

First, we must eliminate disappointment over the lack of the anticipated “Red Wave” as that disappointment influences our perception. If you were hoping to win the $2 billion Power Ball lottery and only got the 2nd prize, you may think “what might have been” but you should be happy because you just won $1 million.  We won the House and we now have a dog-in-the-fight.  (The question remains: is it a Poodle or a Pit Bull?)

And through no fault of our own or the Republican Party, Elon Musk has the left in a panic because Twitter will stop unfairly censoring Conservatives.  Anyone who disagrees with the left is labelled misinformation – by the left – and they want Twitter to protect us from it.

No thank you.

Wealthy Republican supporters and Republican election committees should concentrate less on advertising and more on gaining control of some media outlets.

The Republicans now control the House and we should expect a dead stop in the left’s expansion and a roll back of some of the left’s victories over the past two years. But reasonably, the left will control the Senate and the Presidency so the House can’t roll back everything.  What we don’t need is more reaching across the aisle with their lips.  We need leadership that will take the hits from the left-wing media and produce some victories.

A Pit Bull.

After the Constitutional Convention, Ben Franklin was asked: what kind of country had been formed?  He replied, “A republic – if you can keep it”.

Franklin was more on point than he could have imagined.

One of our founding fathers’ main concerns was “the tyranny of the majority”.  Our Constitution was written to prevent just that.    

In New York State, where one party controls the government, the United States Constitution no longer applies and the majority does what it wants. Doubt that?

Under Governor Hochul’s definition of democracy, the government can take away your 2^nd Amendment protected property because you might commit a crime at sometime in the future.  You can get your property back - if you can prove that you will not commit that as yet uncommitted crime.

How did this happen?  How did the constitution get flipped? How did the United States government - that was formed to be the servant of the people become the master of the people?

Before our Constitution, people were “servants of the king”, not citizens.  But 11 score and 13 years ago, that changed.  The representatives of 13 nation states met and decided to become the United States.  They knew that big government, with a king at its head, would lead to tyranny and they’d just fought a war against that.  They decided that they’d prevent tyranny by limiting that government’s power and by dividing the power amongst various branches.  They understood that governments will use their power to protect their power and punish those that threaten that power. 

The executive – the President – was easy.  They’d let George do it.

But the legislature – the one that made the laws – that was a problem.  The devil was in the details.

The big states knew that a legislature where representation was based on population was fair - as the big states saw it. 

The smaller states said – nice try.  Representation based on population would mean that small states would have no effective vote.  Emphasis on “effective” vote!

They compromised on a two-house legislature where one house was based on population and the other house would have two senators for all states, big or small.  And importantly, all laws had to pass both houses.  

The new nation needed all 13 states – big and small – for national defense and a workable economy.  Everyone understood that a compromise that diluted their own states’ power was necessary for the greater good.

Buried in article 4 of the constitution, the founders added a critical phrase: the federal government “shall guarantee to every state a republican form of government”. They didn’t describe what that government would look like.  It must have seemed obvious that the Constitution’s articles 1, 2, and 3 were exactly what it should be.

Unfortunately, the states were not as high-minded as the founders.  The states formed their version of a republican government but, unlike the founders, the states were not willing to give away power for the greater good. 

In 1964, challenges to these states’ laws landed in the Supreme Court ...the Warren Court...the most liberal court we’ve ever had and hope to never have again.

Not missing a chance to correct the founders’ mistakes, in Warren’s opinion, in a series of decisions Warren found something in the U.S. Constitution that even its writers didn’t know was there.  They essentially found that the U.S. Constitution……was unconstitutional!  Their collective decisions are known as one man one vote and they had the effect of moving power from rural areas to densely populated cities.  The tyranny of the majority was enshrined by Earl Warren.

Warren found that a republican form of government meant that representation in both houses of state legislatures had to both be based on population.  How they found that in the 14th amendment, or anywhere in the constitution, is a mystery. 

In that decision, Warren would probably have liked to reorganize the federal Congress too.  But that was a bridge too far, even for Warren.  He left that task to Biden, Pelosi and Schumer.

Not everyone agreed with Warren.  In dissent, Justice John Marshall Harland II accused the court of amending the constitution through its opinions rather than waiting for the lawful amendment process.

Almost every state had a two-house legislature and, suddenly, after about 175 years and without legislative or executive approval, they became entirely based on population.

Warren wanted to solve the problem in the worst possible way and that’s exactly how he did it – in the worst possible way.

In New York State, where one city’s population dominates the state’s population, the rural portions of the state were left defenseless. Tyranny of the majority became a reality.  

The founding fathers got it right. A democracy would only lead to tyranny of the majority, something the Warren court never understood – or chose to intentionally ignore.

If a map of New York State was colored red for Republican counties and blue for Democrat counties, the obvious conclusion would be that New York is a Republican state.  If you created a map to show which counties have little or no say in their state government you could use that same map.

What if, instead of one man one vote, New York’s Senate mirrored the federal Senate and contained one senator from each county, no matter what the population?  Rural and upstate counties would have a voice in their legislature that is currently denied them.

Those of us brought up to respect the constitution may not agree with judicial decisions but we work within the system to change them.  Instead, Warren empowered generations of liberal judges to ignore the words of the U.S. Constitution and substitute their own political biases. 

We must begin the great task of reversing one man one vote and return to a constitutional republic where we no longer fear the tyranny of the government.

The first step is to make the public aware that this is another perversion of our constitution by the liberal left. 

There is a saying – the enemy of my enemy is my friend.  We may not all agree on every issue, but there can be no doubt that one man one vote is the enemy of all who believe in our republic. 

Our founders gave us the structure that made the United States the greatest country in the history of the world - if we can keep it.  It’s our right and our duty to preserve our constitution against all enemies, “Foreign and domestic”.

Pushing against one man one vote until it is overturned by the Supreme Court is not an impossible dream and it is one worthy of our best efforts. 

United – we will succeed.

We must succeed.

Divide New York, SCOPE, Niagara County SAFE…and Congresswoman Claudia Tenney have begun the effort to return our state and our nation to a republican form of government where the tyranny of the majority no longer prevails. 

The United States Supreme Court has shown it is willing to relook at the aberrations of the Warren court.  The time is now.  Let’s not waste our chance. 

Lame Duck Dangers and Joe Biden  by Tom Reynolds

SCOPE warned that the “lame duck” period until the new Congress takes over in January could be very dangerous to our rights.  Joe Biden is trying to prove our point.

Proving that Thanksgiving is aptly called “Turkey Day”, on it, Biden told reporters that he would be working on new gun-control laws between now and when the Republicans take charge of the House in January.

“The idea we still allow semi-automatic weapons to be purchased is sick. It’s just sick,” Biden said. “It has no, no socially redeeming value. Zero. None. Not a single solitary rationale for it except profit for the gun manufacturers…I’m going to try to get rid of assault weapons.”

As most gun owners know, semi-automatic describes a broad array of guns that can fire one bullet with each squeeze of the trigger and reloads itself after each shot.  Almost a decade ago, the National Rifle Association estimated that half of all guns sold in the U.S. qualified as semi-automatic. That ratio would probably be higher today.   

The American people would seem to be letting Biden know their feelings by voting with their pocketbooks.  Black Friday was the 3rd highest Black Friday for NICS checks with 192,749.  The previous week wasn’t bad, either:

• Saturday, Nov. 20, 2022-102,376;

• Sunday, Nov. 21, 2022 - 57,665;

• Monday, Nov. 22, 2022 - 103,543;

• Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2022 - 109,895;

• Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2022 - 116,033;

• Thursday, Nov. 25, 2022 - 29,111;

• Friday, Nov. 26, 2022 - 192,749. 

Earlier this year, Democratic Representative David Cicilline of Rhode Island filed the HR1808, the Assault Weapons Ban of 2022 Act, which passed the House on July 29th by a party-line 217-213 vote. Cicilline’s bill would ban the sale or possession of multiple different types of firearms, including rifles, pistols and shotguns as well as large capacity magazines.  The bill has currently been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee so it would normally die there and it would have to be reintroduced as a new bill in the new Congress in January.  However, given Biden’s threats, will he try to breathe life into it since the new House is unlikely to pass it if reintroduced?

Never letting a tragedy go to waste, Biden has tried to use some recent shootings to reinforce his call for an assault weapons ban.  But inconvenient facts would get into his way, (if the media were willing to do something other than be the left’s propaganda arm).  The perp behind the Walmart shooting and another who killed three football players at the University of Virginia reportedly used 9mm pistols, not the so-called assault weapons”.

Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky noted that, “Americans rejected Pelosi’s gun control schemes in the midterms, yet here is Biden saying he wants to ban modern firearms, and maligning most gun owners.”

Biden also said he would be working to strengthen federal Red Flag laws, ignoring that those laws run afoul of the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 14th Amendments.  That pesky Constitution is such a bummer for Biden!

One issue that seems to have been forgotten by some voters in the recent election is the incompetence of the Biden administration in foreign affairs. 

When not desperately trying to destroy the 2nd Amendment, Democrats were handing over $83 billion worth of equipment to the enemy in a botched retreat from Afghanistan.  (Not quite what the British left behind during WW2 at Dunkirk, but a good start.)

The enormous list of weapons and military hardware that was gift-wrapped and handed to the Taliban is extensive and includes the following:

American Aircraft, Equipment & Armored Vehicles*

o   2,000 Armored Vehicles Including Humvees and MRAPs

o   75,989 Total Vehicles: FMTV, M35, Ford Rangers, Ford F350, Ford Vans, Toyota Pickups, Armored Security Vehicles etc.

o   45 UH-60 Blackhawk Helicopters

o   50 MD530G Scout Attack Helicopters

o   ScanEagle Military Drones

o   30 Military Version Cessnas

o   4 C-130s

o   29 Brazilian made A-29 Super Tucano Ground Attack Aircraft

o   Heavy Equipment, Including Bull Dozers, Backhoes, Dump Trucks, Excavators

*Per ammoland 11/19/22

Retired Lt. Colonel Oliver North (who spoke at SCOPE’s 2021 annual banquet) said that U.S. weapons and military equipment abandoned by the Biden administration in Afghanistan is “some of the most sophisticated weapons and equipment we’ve ever made for the military…It’s going to be reverse-engineered in China. It will be reverse-engineered in Russia. It will be used against us in other campaigns.”

North predicted that the Taliban, ISIS, and Haqqani Network would collectively become “the best armed criminal enterprise in the history of mankind”. 

The good news is that everything eventually wears out and Biden wouldn’t sell spare sparts to the Taliban.

He wouldn’t?  Right?

Please tell me Biden wouldn’t, even if the Taliban agreed to go Woke in exchange for spare parts?  He wouldn’t? Right?

Just imagine, for a moment, if we still had that equipment to give to Ukraine when that war broke out.

_____________________

On another opportunity that Biden is fouling-up through inattention…

Huge riots are breaking out China, Iran and Russia.

The Chinese don’t seem to like being locked up because of Covid, especially since some people are having their doors welded shut to keep them isolated.  (Don’t they have fire laws in China?)  Isn’t it ironic that the virus they introduced into the world is coming back to bite them.

What is rumored is that China Chairman Xi is actually using the China Virus as a cover up for political oppression.  What?  A socialist government would use its unrestrained power against a political enemy?  Say it aint so.

In Russia, there has been widespread protests against the Ukrainian War.  Even the military got involved when, in early November, thousands of furious conscripts, who had been forcibly mobilized into Russia's military, rioted in the southwest Russian city of Kazan. 

And the war itself isn’t going real well, either. 

And in Iran, riots had been breaking out over water shortages, blackouts and the rise in government-controlled prices.  Then, the death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, in a hospital where she was taken by morality police for violating social dress codes, caused further rioting.

Ronald Reagan would be salivating at the opportunities afforded by this level of discord amongst regimes that are truly evil.  We could expect the modern-day equivalent of “Tear down this wall”.  He’d be flooding the market with U.S. produced oil to back Russia’s and Iran’s economies into a corner at a time they can least afford it.

What is Biden doing?  He had a state dinner for France’s President and his media buddies are focused on Donald Trump’s dinner guests.

Perhaps he thinks that the riots are “mostly peaceful protests”? 

At the very least, Kamala Harris could start a “go fund me” account to bail out the rioters, as she did with rioters in the United States.

But in fairness, not all riots deserve Biden’s attention. 

Riots broke out in several cities in Belgium and the Netherlands following Belgium’s 2-0 defeat to Morocco at the World Cup in Qatar.  Bummer.  2-0!  That was a blow out in soccer (oops football).

Gazzola  by Tom Reynolds

Last week, SCOPE wrote about a hearing scheduled on Thursday the 1^stof December on the Gazzola v Hochullawsuit. S.C.O.P.E. Shooters Committee On Political Education - Gazzola v Hochul Lawsuit (scopeny2a.org) This is the lawsuit over Hochul’s crushing, unconstitutional laws aimed at driving Federal Firearm Licensees (FFL’s) out of business. On Friday, the judge deniedthe lawsuit’s request for an injunction to stop the laws from going into effect.

As yet, we have only seen the following announcement and not the written decision.

After carefully considering all of the parties' submissions in connection with [13] Plaintiffs' motion for a temporary restraining order and/or a preliminary injunction, as well as the oral argument presented at the hearing yesterday, the Court DENIES Plaintiffs' [13] motion, and will not issue a temporary restraining order or a preliminary injunction. A written decision will follow shortly. SO ORDERED by Chief Judge Brenda K. Sannes on 12/2/2022.

This decision does not stop the lawsuit from going forward but does stop an injunction from temporarily halting its enforcement.

Judge Brenda K. Sannes, the Chief U.S. District Judge, was an Obama appointment in 2014. (She is one of the results of gun owners who don’t vote.)

In the lawsuit, the FFL’s asserted, “Many of the new laws will financially burden the Plaintiffs to a point that they will be forced out of business, potentially as early as December 5, 2022, if no immediate relief is had from the Court.”

Today is December 5^th. FFL’s that have not complied with the law and open their doors today will be in legal jeopardy. Hopefully, local law enforcement agencies will not enforce the law.

On July 19^th, SCOPE wrote an Email about the effect of these new laws regarding FFL’s. The following is from that e mail.

Drive retailers out of business so fewer legal places exists to buy a firearm in NY while driving up prices in gun stores that remain open:

“…firearms, rifles and shotguns shall be secured, other than during business hours, in a locked fireproof safe or vault on the dealer's business premises or in a secured and locked area on the dealer's business premises.”

The dealer must remove dozens of firearms from display and store them in some secure area every night and then put them back on display in the morning.  (Will this encourage retailers to stay open 24/7/365 as a cheaper alternative?)

“…ammunition shall be stored separately from firearms, rifles and shotguns and out of reach of customers.” 

Another separate nightly secured storage area for ammo?  During store hours, add another clerk to wait on customers who formerly waited on themselves.

“The dealer's business premises shall be secured by a security alarm system that is installed and maintained by a security alarm operator properly licensed pursuant to article six-D of this chapter.” 

Add several thousand per year extra costs for this but…a windfall profit for security system operators.  (Is it possible there was some greasing-of-palms to get this included?  Nah.  Never in New York.  [Sarcasm intended again.])

And after the firearms dealers invest thousands to meet these requirements, NYS will now start inspecting their paperwork along with BATFE.  Dealers can lose their license over a minor paperwork error or a clerk’s unintended mistake.  Thousands of dollars and a business at risk over a minor paperwork error.

“The Gun Writer” reports that in the years before the Biden-Harris administration took over the White House, the ATF usually revoked an average of 40 Federal Firearm Licenses per year. But, in the 18 months since Joe Biden declared war on “rogue gun dealers,” the ATF has revoked 273 FFLs.

Chicken or the gun  by Tom Reynolds

At Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport in Florida, a handgun was found inside a raw chicken.

In answer to your first question, per the TSA website, "meat, seafood, and other non-liquid food items are permitted in both carry-on and checked bags."

Which raises a second question: why would anyone bring a raw chicken on an airplane?  Answer: to hide a handgun.

And the obvious third question: which came out first, the gun or the magazine?

This was not a half-baked idea.

Reasons given for it being discovered:

• The bird was on the no-fry list

• There’s no carrion in the carry-on.

• The gun was half-cocked.

No word on what the passenger is being charged with other than being afoul of the law.
______________________

A California teen decided to reach across the political aisle and strike up a conversation with Trump supporters at a recent rally in Tennessee.

"Growing up in L.A., you think that these events are going to be like, very aggressive," Samuel Donner said.  He thought initially no one at the Trump rally would want to talk to him. "I was absolutely baffled that people wanted to talk and would actually be friends with me…There were a couple of people who didn't want to talk to me, but overall, everyone was super-friendly." 

Donner said these interactions changed how he views America and challenged his prior notions about Trump supporters.
_______________________

George Soros’ organization has successfully installed anarchist district attorneys in many major cities over the past decade. But the left apparently needed an insurance policy to neuter law-and-order prosecutors who Soros could not beat at the ballot box. The California courts have now offered one.  It will essentially bar any law-and-order prosecutor from working on a case involving groups like Black Lives Matter and Antifa.

On September 28, California’s Second District Court of Appeals announced that the San Luis Obispo district attorney’s office cannot prosecute seven BLM rioters because of the district attorney’s “well publicized association with critics of the Black Lives Matter Movement.”

Nearly every judge in Democrat run major cities is tied to and even involved in left-wing activism. Yet a prosecutor is now able to be booted from a case for simply expressing pro-law-and-order views. That would disqualify essentially any non-Soros prosecutor.
 __________________________________________________________________

The New York Times criticized Virginia’s open carry law the day after a manager allegedly “pulled out a handgun” and shot six people dead in a Walmart, where open carry is banned.

The NYT failed to note at least two things:

• Witnesses described the manager pulling the gun from concealment, not open carrying.
• Walmart banned the open carry of firearms in 2019.

Gazzola v Hochul Lawsuit  by Tom Reynolds

Another lawsuit against Hochul’s unconstitutional laws - Gazzola v Hochul - has been filed in the U.S. District Court for The Northern District of NY.

This lawsuit challenges thirty-one (31) inter-connected statutes that contain a multitude of new mandates impacting Federal Firearms Licensees (FFL’s) as both individuals and businesses who are engaged in the lawful commerce in firearms and in gun shows. The thirty-one (31) statutory provisions being challenged originated in four (4) Bills, signed into law between May 30, 2022 and July 1, 2022:

• Bill S.9407-B – signed May 30, 2022 (eff. June 30, 2022);

• Bill S.9458 – signed May 30, 2022 (eff. August 30, 2022);

• Bill S.4970-A – signed June 6, 2022 (eff., generally, June 30, 2022); 

• Bill 51001 – signed July 1, 2022 (eff., generally, September 1, 2022)

The lawsuit charges: “express animus against Plaintiffs…seeking to exercise their rights under the Second Amendment…the new laws collectively impair and impede the ability of the Plaintiffs to engage in the lawful commerce of firearms and to host a gun show, and to serve as a conduit for those seeking to exercise their fundamental Second and Fourteenth Amendment rights. The new laws also violate the Fifth Amendment rights of the Plaintiffs, including the right against self-incrimination.”

Some of the specific issues cited in the lawsuit:

• The transfer of the federal NICS background check making the NYS Police the “Point of Contact,” and the creation of a new division within the NYS Police to perform background checks, as a forced intermediary between the licensed dealer and the current, federal NICS system

• The “security plan,” including a “safe,” “vault,” or “secured and locked area on the dealer’s business premises” and the separate storage of ammunition.

• A “security alarm system,” including installation and maintenance by a third-party vendor, as well as specified placement of cameras with video recording devices with feed storage.

• The prohibition against entry of persons under eighteen years of age without a parent or legal guardian.

• Mandatory, semi-annual submission of the Book of Acquisitions and Dispositions (A&D Book) to the Defendant NYS Police.  (This violates federal law.)

• Access to inventory records “at any time” by “law enforcement agencies.”

• Authorization to the Superintendent of the NYS Police to “…promulgate such additional rules and regulations as the superintendent shall deem necessary to prevent firearms, rifles, and shotguns from being diverted from the legal stream of commerce.”

• Restriction against the sale of body vests.

• Establishing a new, standardized, classroom and live-fire course and test necessary for concealed carry handgun permits.

• Restriction against the purchase of a semi-automatic rifle without a license.

• Requirement of an ammunition background check.

The lawsuit points out that many of the new laws are vague and poorly defined.  (Well, when you rush laws through without input, you tend to make mistakes.)

Obviously, the purpose of these new laws is to bury the FFL’s in paperwork and then find an error in the paperwork, so the FFL’s license can be revoked.

Another purpose of the laws is to financially drive FFL’s out of business.  The lawsuit estimates that the “best guess” new costs are estimated to range from $200,000/year to approaching $1 million/year. Plaintiffs are small business owners, ranging from self-employed sole proprietors to small to medium-sized retail shops with less than five employees.  The costs directly burden a law-abiding citizen’s right to acquire a firearm and the necessary ammunition for self-defense.  Many of the new laws will financially burden the Plaintiffs to a point that they will be forced out of business, potentially as early as December 5, 2022, if no immediate relief is had from the Court.  (You can carry a gun in NY State but if you can’t find a store in which to buy it or to buy ammo…)

The lawsuit highlights the important role that FFL’s play in preventing disqualified / unlicensed people from obtaining a firearm.  It says, “The FFL…play a greater role even than state and local law enforcement relative to commerce in firearms.”  These FFL’s:

• Are the entities that assure that firearms are sold only to persons who are not “disqualified.”

• Personally make the preliminary assessment of the customer across the counter.

• Collect the personal information for the background check on the ATF Form 4473 and check the valid identification document.

• Says the words “denied” or “delayed,” and is face-to-face with the man or woman who will be leaving the store without the firearm.

• Has a federally-protected right to decline to complete a sale to an individual, even if the background check comes back “Proceed.”

Eighteen (18) County Legislatures across the State of New York are passing “Resolutions” in opposition to the complete package of ten Bills pushed through by Defendant Gov. Hochul and targeting, in particular, NY Bill S.51001. These “Resolutions” call out the animus and actions of the Defendants.

The lawsuit also points out that there are eight (8) other lawsuits against these laws, in progress.

This lawsuit charges NY State with:

• DEPRIVATION OF CIVIL RIGHTS

• PRE-EMPTION BY FEDERAL LAW

• VOID FOR VAGUENESS DOCTRINE

• CONSTITUTIONAL-REGULATORY OVERBURDEN

The Plaintiffs ask for a declaratory judgment that all thirty-one (31) new laws, rules, and regulations shall be struck down and denied of having any legal force or effect; an injunctive relief order restraining Defendants and their officers, agents, servants, employees, and all others from enforcing the laws, rules, and regulations complained of herein.

Not trusting the Hochul administration, the lawsuit further requests that: “…the appointment of a special referee or magistrate to monitor any actions by the Defendants and other associated offices and agencies…to monitor any claims of future Defendant compliance with their responsibilities…”

The hearing is scheduled for tomorrow (Thursday the 1^st of December) before Judge Brenda K. Sannes, the Chief U.S. District Judge.  She was an Obama appointment in 2014.

The attorney for the plaintiffs is Paloma Capanna.  NYS will have most likely have 3 lawyers challenging Paloma, since money is no object to them.

U.S. District Court for The Northern District of NY includes the counties of Albany, Broome, Cayuga, Chenango, Clinton, Columbia, Cortland, Delaware, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Greene, Hamilton, Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, Madison, Montgomery, Oneida, Onondaga, Oswego, Otsego, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Schoharie, St. Lawrence, Tioga, Tompkins, Ulster, Warren, and Washington.  It’s decisions only apply to those counties.

• Biden’s Meanderings:  Consistency, thy name is NOT Biden!

  Biden on Fossil Fuels

  Statements by Joe Biden on fossil fuels

  February 2020: “We are going to get rid of fossil fuels...we’re going to phase out fossil fuels.”

  March 15, 2020: "No more drilling on federal lands. No more drilling including offshore. No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period. [It] ends.”

  October 19, 2022: “[W]e need to responsibly increase American oil production…let’s debunk some myths here. My administration has not stopped or slowed U.S. oil production; quite the opposite*.

  *Biden seems to have forgotten a few of his Administration’s energy initiatives:

• ·      Canceling the Keystone XL Pipeline;
• ·      Halting Lease Sales in Alaska’s ANWR;
• ·      Placing a Moratorium on Drilling on Federal Lands;
• ·      Rejoining the Paris Climate Accord;
• ·      Proposing Energy-Inhibiting Budgets;
• ·      Canceling Oil and Gas Drilling Leases;
• ·      Initiating Punitive Government Investigations;
• ·      Restricting Permian Basin Drilling Using Ozone Rules;
• ·      Imposing Stricter Methane Emissions Rules.

Biden on Gas Prices

October 27, 2022: “Today, the most common price of gas in America is $3.39 — down from over $5 when I took office**.”

**The most common price for a gallon of regular gas on the day he was inaugurated was $2.39.

Biden on Social Security Increase

Recently: Biden claimed, "on my watch, for the first time in 10 years, seniors are getting an increase in their Social Security checks." 

Of all people, the New York Times corrected his disinformation: "That increase was the result of an automatic cost-of-living increase prompted by the most rapid inflation in 40 years. Mr. Biden had not done anything to make retirees’ checks bigger.” 

“Not done anything?”  I beg to differ.  Biden can take some credit since he bears a lot of responsibility for the inflation which drove the increase.   

Biden on Unemployment

October 2022: Biden claims that September's unemployment rate was the lowest it has been in 50 years at 3.5%. 

Actually, it was a tie with three different months during Trump's administration in 2019 and 2020. 

Biden on the Deficit and Federal Debt

President Biden said that he has “cut the federal debt in half.”

The federal debt was $27.7 Trillion when Joe Biden took office in January of 2021. Last month, the federal debt exceeded $31 Trillion.

Biden seemed to mix up the debt with the annual deficit; the latter was cut in half between fiscal 2021 and fiscal 2022. However, the primary reason the deficit plummeted was that it had skyrocketed to a record high because of emergency pandemic relief spending that was not renewed.  Joe Manchin also deserves some credit for torpedoing $2.2 trillion of Biden’s plans. 

A Moody’s Analytics director said, “The actions of the administration and Congress have undoubtedly resulted in higher deficits, not smaller ones.”

Marc Goldwein, senior vice president at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget told CNN (Yes, that CNN) Biden has “done lots of things that have increased deficits…” and has “…passed no pieces of legislation to directly reduce deficits.”

Travels With Xi

Biden said on at least three different occasions, per the Washington Post, "Folks, I spent a lot of time — more time with Xi Jinping than any other head of state. … I’ve traveled 17,000 miles with him,"

A White House official conceded that Biden was traveling to meet Xi and not with him.  “This was a reference to the total travel back and forth…for meetings.” 

Maybe they were Zooming when they were traveling?

Biden on 2A and Cannons

The Second Amendment was never absolute," Biden said. "You couldn’t buy a cannon when the Second Amendment was passed. You couldn’t go out and purchase a lot of weapons."

Since we’re a 2A organization, let’s explore this further.

In 1747, largely through the efforts of Benjamin Franklin, a plan was undertaken by local colonists to found companies of “horse, foot and artillery.” These companies were purely volunteer organizations and were armed and equipped at their own expense.

Privateers were privately owned and operated ships that, in the Revolutionary War, captured enemy ships for profit.  Their cannons were private property.  John Hancock owned some of them.

Until 1903, the Militia Act of 1792 outlined the common militia and how it could be called out.  Military historians can point to hundreds of locally raised private units that existed with artillery.

In 1934, under the National Firearms Act, artillery pieces were kept fully legal and free to own, without the federal government getting involved

In 1968, 185 years after the Revolutionary War ended, the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act regulated most “destructive devices” with a bore over .50-caliber. This meant that modern artillery were placed under ATF restrictions at that time.

Covering Biden’s Butt

The NY Times tried to give Biden some cover: “Mr. Biden, who at 79 is the oldest president in American history, has a long record of gaffes dating back to when he was a young man. But his misstatements have become more pronounced, and more noticed, now that he has the spotlight of the presidency constantly on him."

In other words, it’s not about his current mental state…he’s always been screwed up.  We’re just more aware of it now, so it’s no big deal. 

Thomas Paine on Biden?

And as to you, Sir, treacherous in private friendship and a hypocrite in public life, the world will be puzzled to decide whether you are an apostate or an impostor; whether you have abandoned good principles, or whether you ever had any.

Something to Give Thanks For  by Tom Reynolds

On Monday, SCOPE wrote that there were various other law suits challenging Hochul’s Concealed Carry Improvement Act (CCIA).  One of them is the lawsuit between Firearms Policy Coalition and the 2nd Amendment Foundation v Nigrelli and Flynn; (the latter representing New York State). On Tuesday, gun owners got a reason to celebrate Thanksgiving.

The United States District Court Western District of New York ruled that the CCIA’s provision that, “it is a felony for a license holder to possess a firearm on all private property unless the relevant property holders actually permit such possession with a sign or by express consent” is unconstitutional.  

The judge believes the lawsuit against NY State is likely to succeed on its merits under the 2nd and 14th Amendments and granted a preliminary injunction.  He said that CCIA: “It forces individuals to give up their rights to armed self defense outside the home”.

The judge also denied New York State’s request for a 3 day delay in starting the preliminary injunction to give NYS the time to appeal, so it is immediately in effect.

District courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary.  District courts' decisions only apply to counties in its jurisdiction.  Western District Court appeals are made to the  U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Western District includes:

Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Chemung, Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Niagara, Ontario, Orleans, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben, Wayne, Wyoming, and Yates. Major cities within its jurisdiction include Buffalo, Rochester, and Elmira.

The decision will only apply to these counties.

Undoubtably, NYS under Attorney General Letitia James will appeal.  The  U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals is going to be busy hearing CCIA cases!

2023 Looks Better  by Henry Kramer

Although final returns are not yet in from all districts at this writing, it is clear that the House will flip to Republican control, come the new year.  The margin may be small but there are definite consequences that should be of good cheer to second amendment protectors.

     It becomes unlikely that overbearing federal gun control legislation will make it through House committees or be passed in the next two years. However, in the “lame duck” session in this November and December, anything can happen – and it’s all bad.

    Vigilance is still required and so is voting.  If all registered gun owners in New York State had voted their interests in the midterms, Zeldin would have won the governorship and could have blocked overly strict gun control laws.  There will be another chance, in 2024, to replace second amendment hating legislators with those who believe in protecting constitutionalrights.

There is even some good news for New York residents. Although the New York legislatures remain firmly in Democrat hands, this election had to be sobering to New York Democrats.  Several House seats flipped from Democrat to Republican and Republicans came closer to winning the governor's race.

Democrats can blame their House loss on their redistricting overreach which forced a judge to rewrite the districts into something more In line with the NY Constitution. Had Democrats not been so greedy, the judge would probably have accepted a less one-sided redistricting and the Democrats might have kept a few seats, which might have saved the House for them.

Democrats should be scared.  They may need to think twice before they continue their quest to impose harsh gun control legislation on the people of New York.  But will they think twice? The possibility does exist that they will "double down" on gun control and continue to pass gun legislation that will likely not survive review in the courts and before the U.S. Supreme Court. They know it takes time and money to overturn these unconstitutional laws, through the courts.