• ·      Zeldin has consistently won in a toss up Congressional District.  In 2010 he was elected to the New York Senate and in 2014 he was elected to Congress.

• ·      Astorino won election to his Town Board in 1991 and County Legislature in 2003.  He ran for election as the Westchester County Executive and lost in 2005 but won it in 2009 and won again in 2013 and then lost in 2017.  (Westchester is a solidly Democrat county.)  Astorino lost in a 2014 statewide race for NY Governor.  (More on that later.) 

• ·      Wilson narrowly lost in a 2010 bid for NY Comptroller (he got 46% of the statewide vote), his only run for office; this is the best showing by a Republican in a statewide race, since then.    

• ·      Giuliani has not previously run for office.

• ·      Astorino was a County Executive for eight years; he highlights that the Westchester budget was $1.8 billion when he entered office and still $1.8 billion, eight years later, when he left office.  Very importantly, he also successfully fought the Obama administration’s attempt to radically destroy suburban / rural life through the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing regulations.  (Note: the Biden administration is resurrecting this effort and if you don’t know about this you should!  This threatens the very core of suburban / rural living.)

• ·      Wilson was a private investor and corporate restructuring expert who earned millions.  At 36, he left business to pursue charity work and politics.  Wilson highlights the lessons he learned as an executive in the private sector as key to turning around NY State.  (Note, Democrats disparaged Mitt Romney’s similar experience.)    

• ·      Zeldin’s executive experience is as an officer in the Amy and now as a Lieutenant Colonel in the reserves.  He is the only candidate with military experience and serving in Iraq would certainly qualify as working in a high stress environment. 

• ·      Giuliani has no executive experience but has his father as Mayor of NY City to model on.  

The political party “establishment” is a factor. 

Both the Republican and Conservative Parties have endorsed Zeldin as their candidate.  This brought criticism down on the parties as being done too early before the “people” had a chance to speak in the primary.  This also made Zeldin the front runner and gave him an advantage but it also made him a target. 

It should be noted that the Republican Party endorsement was an effort to focus attention and fund raising on one person and, unsuccessfully, avoid intraparty conflict which gives the Democrats talking points.  Kathy Hochul has raised more than $35 million for her campaign while all 4 candidates, together, do not approach that figure. Hochul, as the incumbent governor, also has the ability to dole out state funding, as she did with $600 million for the Buffalo Bills new stadium. (Your tax dollars at work.)

In 2014, several candidates in the Republican Party made a deal with Andrew Cuomo.  If Cuomo did not work against them, these Republicans agreed not to actively support Republican governor candidate Astorino, which hurt Astorino’s campaign and fund raising.  Astorino also charged that Republican Governor’s Association Chairman Chris Christie did not support him in deference to fellow governor Cuomo.  (Christie claims it was a financial decision that, with limited funds, they only supported candidates with a strong chance of winning.)  The election turned out to be low turnout in both parties and the Republican Party blew its best chance to defeat Cuomo.   

Harry Wilson claims to be a lifelong Republican.  He worked in the Obama administration as a Special Advisor to the Treasury Department on the GM Bankruptcy and on the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation reform.  (In 2010, Wilson voiced the Democrat talking points when he told Tom Reynolds that he supported the Obama GM scheme because the credit market could not have handled a GM breakup.)  Wilson also contributed to Soros’ funded Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg.  (Wilson claims it was a token donation to a fellow college alum and he would never have done it if he knew Bragg’s positions.)  In an interesting twist, Wilson served on Rob Astorino’s 2009 transition team to Westchester County Executive.

Through Rudy, his father, Andrew Giuliani has been exposed to the inner workings of the Republicans at both the the state and federal level.  During Donald Trump’s presidency he served as associate director of the office of public liaison, then as special assistant to the president.

As the front runner, Zeldin has been the main target of the other three candidates and, therefore, often on the defensive.  All four should have been focusing, instead, on Kathy Hochul.  Some of this deserves further explanation. 

While in the NY Senate, Zeldin voted against Common Core and against the NY Dream Act.  Contrary to political ads, he did not vote for the SAFE Act, as he was on reserve duty (and he later said he would have voted against it).  Zeldin did later vote for NY State budgets that included funding for the SAFE Act; this was a common trait of many Republican Senators at that time, who had opportunities but not the will to roll back Cuomo’s agenda (using NY City Rent Control as leverage is just one example). He does claim to have voted against most Cuomo initiatives.     

In 2011, before newly elected Governor Cuomo had morphed into “Der Fuhrer”, Zeldin said that Cuomo would be a better president than Obama.  (That’s a very low bar to hop over and an interesting question as to who would have been worse!)  Put in context, he was not endorsing Cuomo for President, as has been charged, but being generous at a gathering where his Senate District was getting state money.

All candidates were asked if, should they lose the primary, would they endorse the primary winner.  Astorino, Giuliani and Harry Wilson all clearly answered yes.  Zeldin filibustered but in the middle he indicated he would support the primary winner.  But as an added complication, he is already designated the Conservative Party candidate and would have to resign that in order to not split the vote. The real issue is not the endorsement but not running as a third-party candidate.  But that was not the question.

The debates. 

The governor candidates have had three debates with the last one widely televised.  Candidates don’t seem to understand that they do themselves little good by trying to shout down the other candidates during the debates.  All three attacked Zeldin who actively engaged them, especially Wilson and to a point, Astorino.  The general impression is that Zeldin may have hurt himself by not handling these confrontations well.  Astorino came across as the most polished and changed some minds.      

For the Democrat governor candidate, the polls give Governor Kathy Hochul an overwhelming advantage over her two Democrat opponents: Jumaane Williams and Tom Suozzi. Since Hochul is considered the sure winner of the Democrat primary, we won’t spend time on it at this point.

Go Woke Go Broke – (But Not the CEO)

The Woke Left doesn’t like much about America and the 2^nd Amendment probably heads its enemies list.  You may enjoy a few stories about how the Woke left is faring in its war on all things American.

In February 2020, Bob Chapek became the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Walt Disney Company. 

In March of 2022, Florida’s legislature passed the Parental Rights in Education legislation, which prohibits Florida’s schools from providing instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity issues to students in kindergarten through the third grade.

Chapek was originally silent on the bill, which made his LGBTQ employees unhappy.  So, Chapek apologized and the company came out with a tweet saying that it would work to repeal the legislation or strike it down in the courts.  The LGBTQ employees were less unhappy – but definitely not happy - as Chapek was seen as an untrustworthy flip flopper who did not have true allegiance to LGBTQ.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis denounced Disney as “woke” and accused it of trying to inject “California values” into his state and coordinated legislation that revoked the special tax district status that Disney enjoyed in Florida since 1967.  This will cost Disney billions of dollars.

Two dozen members of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Republican Study Commission voiced opposition to allowing Disney to renew its copyright on Mickey Mouse in 2024, based on what they called the company’s "political and sexual agenda." (The copyright would long ago have expired without legislation to continue it.) 

Peter Rice, who served as Disney’s Chairman of Entertainment and Programming, led the fight against Governor DeSantis. Rice was unexpectedly fired, recently, which reportedly stunned "woke" staffers.

Under Chapek, Disney opened a new theme park in China.  Apparently, China’s attitude toward the Uyghur genocide doesn’t bother Disney’s LGBTQ employees.

Disney is also pushing critical race theory on employees through a new plan called “Reimagine Tomorrow,” urging workers to recognize their “white privilege.” Staffers are told to reflect on America’s “racist infrastructure” and “think carefully about whether or not [their] wealth” is derived from racism.

Disney had earlier planned to move 2,000 employees from California to Florida in 2023. That has been delayed until 2026, which will cost Disney millions.  Many of those employees who were being transferred were unhappy to leave LGBTQ friendly California for Florida and are now unhappy to be left in limbo – otherwise known as California.

In March 2020, because of Covid, Chapek laid off approximately 28,000 employees while enacting pay cuts for the company’s senior executives.  But in August 2020, he fully restored the executives’ pay while the employees were still furloughed. Chapek’s pay is reported to be $32 million this year.

Disney just released the new children’s movie Buzz Lightyear and its Woke employees are elated that the cartoon includes a lesbian kiss.  The movie is projected to need a $600 to $700 million box office to break even and fell well short of expectations in its opening weekend.

Disney’s stock price has dropped from $183 to $94 in the past year.

On another front:

Gannett, America’s largest newspaper chain, publishes the far-left USA Today along with 250-plus local papers. It is cutting back on telling its readers what to think.

“Readers don’t want us to tell them what to think,” said the Gannett editors, according to the far-left Washington Post . “They don’t believe we have the expertise to tell anyone what to think on most issues. They perceive us as having a biased agenda.”

A biased agenda!  Oh, say it aint so!  So, Gannett said it aint so – they said it’s the readers’ fault. 

The editorial committee blamed the readers for not knowing the difference between the editorial and news sections: “Today’s contemporary audiences frequently are unable to distinguish between objective news reporting and Opinion content.” 

A few examples of editorials confused by Gannett – but not by the readers - as being objective news: “Inflation is transitory,” “Trump colluded with Russia,” “Jussie Smollett is a victim,” “Trump will never be president,” “Biden is a moderate,” and “Things will go back to normal with Trump gone and the adults back in charge?”

According to the Washington Post, Gannett lost $135 million last year.  Their stock price dropped from $18.86 to $3.08 over the past 5 years.  (That’s not a drop that’s entering an abyss!)

And if that isn’t enough:

The Kellogg Company announced that it was breaking itself up into three companies: a cereal business, a plant-based food business, and a snack business.  The company now says that its basic structure is unworkable. Management hopes that the parts might be worth more than the sum.

The chief executive is going with the growing snack business rather than staying with the cereal business that management helped destroy.

Kellogg did real damage to its brands when it decided to take sides in American politics by boycotting Breitbart. Declaring that Breitbart - and by extension the entire center-right in America - did not conform to Kellogg’s values. Tony the Tiger became the self-declared opponent of Americans who preferred Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton.

The company had long been suspected of being controlled by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the far-left social justice operation that is its largest shareholder  The wealthy radical leftwing foundation agitates for open borders, supports George Soros’ Open Society Institute, and pushes a host of leftwing causes.

Perhaps the smaller descendants of Kellogg will be a bit less eager to include culture wars in its basic structure. 

Shares had peaked in April of 2016 just short of $82, then dropped to $56 in 2019 and traded in the low $60’s until it just “jumped” to $67.

Newspaper Opinion Piece  by Tom Reynolds

The Opinion Page in Sunday’s Elmira Star-Gazette (Gannett Newspaper) had three “opinions” about gun laws; two were for gun control while the one pro 2^nd Amendment opinion was from SCOPE President Tom Reynolds, which is printed below.

Bad decisions get made when emotional.  NY just passed new gun laws to prove this.

We all want tragedies to stop but these new laws are ineffective, feel-good laws that will not stop these tragedies.  They are aimed at law abiding gun owners and not the criminals who commit these crimes. 

You will now need a license to use a constitutional right; to buy or take possession of America’s most popular semi-automatic rifle, the Modern Sporting Rifle. 

What’s next?  A license to use 1^st Amendment rights to comment publicly about licensing laws? The answer is yes.  Also passed was a law to monitor what you say. It created a task force on “Social Media and Violent Extremism”, which is a poorly disguised step to censor the Right, since NY doesn’t even consider ANTIFA and BLM riots to be violent extremism.   

21 will become the minimum age to purchase or possess any semi-automatic rifle.  Do 18 years old lack sufficient judgement and maturity?  If so, why should they vote at 18 or be able to get an abortion without their parent’s’ consent before 18 or be able to identify as a different gender before 18? 

One law hopes to implement microstamping.  The fact is that microstamping doesn’t work and is easily defeated. 

Another reason for these laws is to drive retailers out of New York.    

NY State had passed a law that guns are a “Public Nuisance”, to get around the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA).  PLCAA is the law that Biden constantly lies about, saying gun manufacturers can’t be sued.  NY is intentionally exposing gun stores and manufacturers to frivolous lawsuits, in order to bankrupt them with legal fees.    

Acting in tandem with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, NY is increasing record keeping requirements to put gun stores in danger of losing their licenses over minor paperwork infractions.

If they wanted real change, the legislature would have done away with Bail Reform, Gun Free Zones and made District Attorneys, like Manhattan’s Alvin Bragg, enforce the laws.          

Per the FBI’s 5 years statistics on homicides, which are available on line, all rifles, not just semi-automatics, are used less in homicides than: knives or blunt instruments (hammers) or hands & feet.  Semi-automatic rifles are not the problem. 

One minister asked how one could oppose abortion and still be for guns.  Abortions kill a defenseless human being.  Gun owners want to protect themselves and others so they do not become defenseless murder victims.

Our core problem is that the leftist culture is a culture without morals and ethics.  A culture that denigrates American values and a culture without God.  Murder is a sin but when is that aspect discussed?  Change the culture not the laws.

One anti-gun opinion tried to say that being pro-gun was incompatible with being anti-abortion. That issue was addressed in Reynolds’ article. 

That anti-gun article contained numerous erroneous assumptions about AR15’s and absolved “Hollywood, wokeism, videogames and other mythical scapegoats” of any blame in murders.  Of course, it also threw in one of the left’s favorite boogey men, it blamed white domestic terrorists for targeting non-white Americans, which ignores that non-whites are the overwhelmingly the killers of other non-whites.  But hey, never let a leftist talking point go to waste, no matter how incorrect.   

One of the pro-gun control opinions centered around raising the age to own 21, the hypocrisy of which was also addressed in Reynolds’ opinion.  The anti-gun author used Gary Cooper in the movie “High Noon” as the rationale why a rifle is not needed for self-defense.  And there you have an example of the intellectual depth of the left, when they quote a fictional movie to defend their position.     

Unfortunately, the lack of knowledge about guns, gun control and the Constitution fills the pages of the leftist media.  How many people read these erroneous statements and accepted them as truth.  Pro gun defenders need to speak out with the facts.

Dumb Jocks  by Tom Reynolds

San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler told reporters, "I don't plan on coming out for the anthem going forward until I feel better about the direction of our country." Later, Kapler wrote about his disillusionment with what he called "the lack of delivery of the promise of what our national anthem represents."

Joe Biden’s attempt to create a “Ministry of Truth” to persecute his political enemies was rejected as unamerican and unconstitutional.  Sounds like a, “delivery of the promise of what our national anthem represents” when American citizens can peacefully stop their government from infringing upon citizens’ rights.  When people try that in most other countries, they get crushed.

If Kapler looked around, he would see a multitude of major league players making more than a million dollars a year who are from Mexico, the Caribbean and South America.  Sounds like the USA is a land of opportunity.  And not just for baseball players; our southern border is overflowing with people trying to get in – not out.

Kapler’s description of the National Anthem called it a: “…thoughtless display of celebration for a country that refuses to take up the concept of controlling the sale of weapons used nearly exclusively for the mass slaughter of humans”.  According to Kapler, the Modern Sporting Rifle, (Assault Rifle to him) is used “nearly exclusively for the mass slaughter of humans.”  It’s estimated there are 15 to 20 million of those rifles in civilian hands.  His comment is both uninformed and a lie.  15 million guns being used nearly exclusively in mass slaughters would be called a civil war! 

Did Kapler miss that the Chinese government disarmed its citizens and that some of those citizens, the Uyghurs, are now the victims of crimes against humanity by…the Chinese government. Now there is a mass slaughter of humans!  I’ll bet the Uyghurs wished they had a few AR15’s.

When the 2^nd Amendment was passed, the signers hadn’t just returned from hunting deer, they had just freed a country and they meant to keep it free.  But Kapler probably missed that history class.

The next time you watch a ballgame, check out the security police.  I’ll bet they are armed.  It’s the same old story for the celebrity elite: “security for me but not for thee”. In a liberal’s world, self-defense is a no-no, except for themselves.

SCOPE recently wrote about the need to change the culture back to traditional values.  Baseball is traditionally called “Our National Pastime”.  That need for cultural change also applies to baseball.

Not too many years ago, Chicago White Sox Shortstop Tim Anderson would have been called a “hotdog”.  In today’s society, we prefer psychological adjectives such as “self-absorbed” and “narcissistic”.  He doesn’t hesitate to call attention to himself and if that causes the pitcher some embarrassment, that’s just collateral damage to the monument Anderson is building to himself.  (Oh for the days when Bob Gibson would have taught Anderson that there is a cost to his antics.)

In a Sports Illustrated interview, Anderson defended his antics: “I kind of feel like today’s Jackie Robinson…That’s huge to say. But it’s cool, man, because he changed the game, and I feel like I’m getting to a point to where I need to change the game.”  Robinson, you may remember, was a serious barrier breaker and comparing Anderson’s antics to what Robinson accomplished not only is nonsense but it demeans Robinson’s accomplishments.  But then again, Anderson specializes in nonsense while demeaning others.

Comparing himself to Jackie Robinson would seem to open Anderson up to some ridicule and derision; especially what used to be called “bench jockeying”.  But not in today’s “politically correct” world of microaggressions.  When Yankee third baseman Josh Donaldson facetiously called him “Jackie”, the calls of racism echoed though the land.

Racism?  You gotta be kidding.  But in today’s leftist culture, there’s no penalty for screaming racism without a basis.

If Anderson had said he was the greatest fan attraction since Babe Ruth, what would have been the reaction if Donaldson had called him Babe?

Tim Anderson is just a self-absorbed lightweight but the media doesn’t don’t you dare call him that since that will brand them a racist. 

Remember in the old cultural days when sportsmanship was lauded and people were proud to salute the national anthem?

And we can always count on the National Felon League to chime in when nonsense is being discussed.  Remember, this is the league that condemned Tim Tebow for kneeling to God but endorsed Colin Kaepernick for kneeling to disparage the USA.

Jack Del Rio recently tweeted that there was a comparison between the nationwide riots of 2020 and the January 6^th assault on the Capitol.  The reaction could not have been more defensive, by the Left, than if he tweeted that there was fraud in the 2020 election.  Del Rio was fined $100,000 and his boss, Washington head coach Ron Rivera, issued a statement filled with left wing propaganda.  Rivera said that Del Rio now “…understands the distinction between that dark day (January 6^th) and peaceful protests.”  Peaceful protests?  I wonder if Rivera thinks the fighting in Ukraine is another example of “peaceful protests”? 

Rivera continued to prove he is an intellectual lightweight by saying, “I want to make it clear that our organization will not tolerate any equivalency between those who demanded justice in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the actions of those on January 6^th who sought to topple our government.”  So much for the 1st Amendment. 

In some ways, there is no comparison between the events since the “peaceful protesters” carried and used guns while those that sought to “topple our government” were doing so unarmed.  The first coup in history where the rebels came unarmed.  

Maybe the jocks aren’t the dumbest.  Since we’re writing about NFL nonsense: at the same news conference that she pushed for more gun control, Governor Hochul forked over $600 million and Erie County added $250 million (all $850 million is taxpayers’ dollars) to build a new stadium for the benefit of the Buffalo Bills’ billionaire owners and the billionaires running the NFL and the millionaires playing in the NFL.  Meanwhile, the Washington franchise is holding up governments in the DC area for sweetheart deals to buy them a new stadium.  Any guesses as to the amount of fraud and collusion in those two deals?

Few have the courage to speak up and call it nonsense, even when it is nonsense.  We still have the 1^st Amendment, why not use it to call out nonsense.

True Feelings  by Tom Reynolds

A friend recently said that picking a political candidate to back is like buying a lottery ticket; you hope you got it right but your chances are slim.

In the case of some politicians, you never know their true feelings until they no longer need your vote or they let it slip out.

This short article reinforces the need to keep a politicians’ feet-to-the-fire, and hope they don’t betray you when they are going out-the-door. 

3 New York Republicans join Democrats in gun bill vote (nystateofpolitics.com)

Unfortunately, when they are going-out-the-door, some forget that they were elected on their stated beliefs and how those beliefs agree with their constituent’s beliefs.  It’s not a sign of some greater virtue to finally reveal their true feelings and, in effect, say “fooled ya”, when the constituents can no longer react in the voting booth.  Others who get elected and reelected should have on their tombstone, “Here lies the lesser of two evils”.

When Chris Jacobs slipped and let us know his true feelings, 2^nd Amendment organizations like SCOPE jumped in quickly and ended his political career, at least for now.  (Some like Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton never go away.) 

Some like John Katko merely can say “fooled ya” and go live on government pensions.

Others like Michelle Malliotakis may go on as the “lesser of two evils”.  Not exactly a campaign phrase to excite voters.

We need SCOPE and its members to be ever vigilant and to unhesitatingly call out politicians when those politicians try to wiggle around their party values, campaign promises and constitutional standards.

Interpretations?  by Tom Reynolds

Why does SCOPE worry that seemingly straight-forward words in laws will be twisted by liberals and used against gun owners?  Because liberals have abandoned any appearance of common sense and when they are in charge…right is wrong, boys are girls and birds are fish.

Last week, a California appeals court ruled that bees are fish.  You did not misread that statement it ruled that bees are fish.

In 2019, the California Fish and Game Commission designated four species of bumble bees as endangered under California’s Endangered Species Act (CESA), which explicitly applies only to “native species or subspecies of bird, mammal, fish, amphibian, reptile, or plant.” Bees can be considered a type of fish based on CESA’s definition of the category, which asserts that a “fish” is a “wild fish, mollusk, crustacean, invertebrate, amphibian, or part, spawn, or ovum of any of those animals.”

Bees are commonly defined by science as: invertebrates—animals that lack a backbone—and they live on land. Insects with wings closely related to wasps and ants, known for their role in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. 

Fish are commonly defined by science as: limbless aquatic vertebrates (animal with a backbone) with fins and internal gills.  They have never been known to pollinate of produce honey. 

Several of the state’s large agricultural groups argued that the word “invertebrate” clearly refers to an aquatic species. But on May 31, 2022, the California 3rd District Court of Appeals disagreed. The judges wrote in  their ruling that, “although the term fish is commonly understood to refer to aquatic species, the legislative history supports the liberal interpretation of the Act.”

So, by act of the California legislature and with the approval of the California Court of Appeals, bees are now fish and fish are now invertebrates.  (That fish are invertebrates should make fishermen happy since we will now have fewer problems skinning them.)

Science begs to differ with the California legislature in other ways.  Entomology is the study of insects, which includes bees. The branch of entomology that focuses exclusively on the study of bees is melittology, but it may also be called apiology. The study of fishes is called ichthyology. 

Apparently, “legislative history” is the ultimate determining factor in biology, in a radically liberal state like California.  (And coming to New York?)  Based on the court’s ruling, if California’s legislature repealed the Law of Gravity, would it be upheld by that same court?  After all, there would be no doubt of the legislature’s purpose and we have a precedent that the laws of science and nature do not apply when they disagree with the legislature’s purpose.

Do you think that is insane?  Count on California to top itself.

A $1.5 Billion bill is proposed in California’s State Senate to buy back water rights that farmers use for their business – growing food – and leave the water in the river for the benefit of endangered fish species.  After all, what do farmers contribute to the economy other than…food. 

And won’t that effect the endangered bees / fish that don’t live in the water and depend on land plants to survive?

And if you thought a bee is a fish isn’t crazy enough…liberal idiocy is not limited to the “Left Coast”.

Three Wisconsin boys are facing sexual harassment charges from their middle school over accusations that they used incorrect gender pronouns on a fellow student.  They are being charged by school officials with Title IV violations, which prohibits gender-based harassment.

Luke Berg, the attorney representing the boys disagreed.  "It’s not sexual harassment under Title IX, under their own policy, under federal law, and it’s probably a First Amendment violation. Almost certainly, if that’s their theory, that solely using the wrong pronoun, that that would be a First Amendment violation,"

Aren’t school officials one of the categories than can Red Flag Law a gun owner?  Apparently, judgement and common sense are not necessary traits to become a school official.

Monday’s Newspaper  by Tom Reynolds

Monday’s newspapers had some interesting things in it – and not in it.

Gunmen in southern Nigeria opened fire on Christian worshippers on Sunday, killing at least 50 people.  Per Australia’s University of Sydney, “In Nigeria, civilians are not allowed to possess machine-guns, military rifles (assault weapons) and handguns.”  Unfortunately for 50 church goers, in Nigeria as in America, criminals didn’t obey the law. 

One has to wonder how many church goers would be alive if the worshippers had been as armed as their attackers?  Would the attack have even taken place if the terrorists had known that the worshippers were heavily armed?

Joe Biden is worried about “right wing terrorists” at school board meetings.  Nigeria could show him what real terrorism is like.

Another article focused on, “Guns divide faith communities”.  As you might imagine, it focused on gun possession being anti-religious. 

One activist asked: ”How can you be pro-life and not support getting rid of assault rifles?” Speaking for those who are anti-abortion, abortion kills a defenseless human being and gun owners do not want to be defenseless victims, so we arm to protect ourselves and others.  That’s how we can be anti-abortion and pro-gun.    

But let’s take that answer further.  Sean Connery’s famous line in The Untouchables movie made fun of the stupidity of “bringing a knife to a gun fight”.  We want to be as armed or, better yet, more heavily armed than any assailant.  If the assailant has a knife, we want a handgun.  If the assailant has a hand gun, we want an “Assault Weapon” with lots of rounds of ammunition in the magazine - or a pump action shotgun with lots of rounds in the magazine.  Since women are smaller than men, to defend themselves they need a weapon tailored to their need: a light weight, light recoil “Assault Rifle” with a full magazine works fine.  That’s why the Modern Sporting Rifle – misnamed as an “Assault Rifle” - is one of the preferred weapons for home defense.

Another article pushed long waiting periods for the purchase of guns and gave all the reasons for it.  It neglected to list even one reason for shorter waiting periods.  For instance, it missed that if a person is threatened, they would not want to wait 30 days to get a gun for defense.  After all, a Restraining Order is just a piece of paper and while police may be minutes away, help from a gun arrives at 1,500 feet per second. 

What was hardly mentioned was that Monday was June 6^th.  Didn’t something rather important happen on that day, to save civilization, 78 years ago? 

Snoopy had a cartoon tribute and there was a one sentence note about D Day in the section, “Today In History”.  More space in that section was given to rallies in support of Black Lives Matter and George Floyd.  Rallies?  Seemed more like riots as I remember them.

It might have been a nice counterpoint to the anti-gun articles to point out what Hitler did in Western Europe is what tyrants always do, they disarm the citizens to prevent effective opposition.  Fortunately, for Western Europe, America and its allies had guns.

New York State Strikes Again  by Tom Reynolds

Never letting a tragedy go to waste, the New York legislature just passed a slew of bad legislation concerning guns - as legislators hurried out the door to work for reelection. 

Like the redistricting issue, as long as the left has unopposed control of the law-making process, they’ll push their agenda, ignoring facts, logic and the constitution.  Their goal is not protecting citizens but disarming citizens.  Once those laws are enacted, fighting them will cost thousands of dollars in court while the Albany swamp will defend those laws using the bottomless pockets of taxpayers. 

By-the-way, that’s why they’re going after the NRA.  Not because of its political contributions -the NRA is not one of the big political contributors - but because the NRA has the dollars to fight back, in court.

The new laws are meaningless in terms of safety.  Why?  Check out the FBI’s statistics covering a 5 years period on homicides; they’re available on line.  All rifles - not just semi-automatics:

• are used less in homicides than knives,         
• are used less in homicides than blunt instruments (hammers), 
• are used less in homicides than hands & feet. 

Semi-automatic rifles are not the problem

The left likes to talk about the Buffalo shooter and the Uvalde shooter but the Buffalo shooter said he chose New York because of its strict gun laws, which made armed opposition less likely.  And all schools are gun free zones, which the Uvalde shooter knew.  Again, less likely to run into armed opposition.

If they wanted real change, the legislature would have done away with:  Bail Reform, Gun Free zones and made District Attorneys, like Manhattan’s Alvin Bragg and San Francisco’ Chesa Boudin, enforce the laws.   (Boudin is polling 10 points down in his Tuesday recall election.)     

One of the new laws extends existing licensing procedures for handguns to semi-automatic rifles.  It will require a license to purchase or take possession of a semi- automatic rifle.  If you thought getting a pistol permit was fun… 

You will now need a license to use your constitutional right.  What’s next?  A license to use your 1^st Amendment rights to comment publicly about licensing laws? 

This is “License Creep”.  In 1934, automatics were licensed, then handguns, now semi-automatic rifles.  Next: Licenses for pump action shotguns?  

And the license will have to be recertified every 5 years.  More bureaucracy to deal with.

Borrow a semi-automatic rifle from a buddy to try out at the firing range and you will have committed a crime.  (Without that license you took possession, which is a crime.)

The law also raises to 21 the minimum age to purchase or possess any semi-automatic rifle.  Why not leave it at 18?  Do 18 years old lack judgement?  Lack maturity?  If that is so, why should they vote at 18?  Why should they be able to get an abortion without their parent’s’ consent before 18.  Why should they be able to identify as a different gender before 18?

Another unspoken reason for these laws, besides skirting around the 2^nd Amendment, is to drive retailers out of New York.  You can’t buy guns, legally if no one is selling guns legally.

Previously, NY State passed a law that guns are a “Public Nuisance”, to get around the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act of 2005 (PLCAA).  That is the law that Biden constantly lies about, saying gun manufacturers can’t be sued.  In truth, NY also is exposing gun stores as well as manufacturers to frivolous lawsuits which PLCAA shielded them from.    

Now, NYS requires a license for customers to buy the most popular firearm - the Modern Sporting Rifle.  This will slow down sales.  Without sales, retailers are out of business.

Now, retailers will have to store guns in a safe or secured area.  Gun retailers usually have dozens of guns on display which will now have to be moved into secure storage when closing and brought back out when opening.  In addition, ammo will have to be stored out of reach of customers, which means hiring additional staff to service the customer.  And to top it off, gun stores will have to install a high-level security system costing thousands of dollars.  The cost of a gun just went up because of “overhead expenses”.  But we need more inflation, right?

Acting in tandem with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) NYS is increasing record keeping requirements and putting gun stores in danger of losing their licenses over a minor paperwork infraction.

What the NY legislature and governor overlook (intentionally) is that the laws only effect law abiding citizens and not criminals.  90% of homicides involve illegal guns or illegal users.  More laws won’t stop criminals.

Our core problem is that the leftist culture is a culture without morals, a culture without ethics, a culture without American values and a culture without God.  Change the culture not the laws.         

And to all those hunters and others who believed the gun control movement was not coming for them, guess again.  How many times will theses gun owners need to be slapped before they realize that the left is serious about taking away their guns.

The legislators who crammed through these laws - in the tradition of Andrew Cuomo and the SAFE Act - will be running for reelection.  If we want to regain New York and our rights, we need to tell these politicians how we feel about reelecting them.  Chris Jacobs just found out he should not have messed with gun owners.  It’s time for other politicians to get that message.

Leftist Talking Points Aren’t research  by Tom Reynolds

A Nevada newspaper featured an op-ed by an anti-gun writer who obviously had not researched the issue any deeper than a few leftist talking points.  What struck me is how shallow his comments were and betrayed a real lack of understanding about guns and gun control.  The following are his comments and my responses.

What is preventing background checks for all gun purchases? In Nevada, if you have a concealed carry weapons permit, no background check is required. And federal law does not require background checks for private sales. The purpose of a background check is to prevent guns from getting into the wrong hands, including criminals and juveniles.

A concealed carry permit holder has already passed the background check.  Many politicians propose laws to bury gun purchasers in regulations in order to make it more difficult to buy a gun than it already is?

90% of all homicide are committed by illegal guns and / or illegal users, so tightening the background check system does not affect those people – usually called criminals.

► How come you need a test and license to drive a car, but no such requirements for using a firearm? The U.S. has the highest gun deaths per capita than any other developed country.

Driving a car is not a constitutionally protected right.  Would you demand a test and license to exercise free speech, such as the writer of the op-ed did? 

And a license is a back door to creating a list of gun owners, which is illegal under federal law.

Statistics differ on a per capita basis.

► Why would one need an assault weapon that has no recreational value? An 18-year-old in Texas cannot buy beer, but can buy an assault gun. An AK-15 is a military weapon designed to create mass casualties and inflict superior damage to organs, and is not appropriate for civilian use. An AK-15 can fire 700 rounds per minute. There are over 15 million AK-15s in the U.S. And an AK-15, or a variant, has been used in several mass shootings, including Aurora, Colorado; Newtown, Connecticut; San Bernardino, California; and Sutherland Springs, Texas. And in Las Vegas, it took a state resident 10 minutes to shoot 1,000 rounds to kill 60 and wound 411.

The “Modern Sporting Rifle” (assault rifle) is an AR 15 which is only fired in semi-automatic – one shot per trigger pull.  700 rounds per minute would require 11+ trigger pulls per second.  (Even Roy Rogers wasn’t that fast!) The AK 15 is a Russian military rifle that fires in automatic.  Get your facts straight.  

Contrary to statement, the so-called assault weapon is properly labelled a “Modern Sporting Rifle”.  Because it has a lesser recoil, it is better suited to women. It allows a civilian (including women) to be on an equal or better basis in a fight against a criminal.

Why should an 18 years old not own a rifle?  An 18 years old can vote. And a vote causes both long and short term damage (Joe Biden for example.)

► How do you propose making our schools safer? As of May 2022 we have had 27 school shootings this year — more than one shooting per week. Recently, 19 children and two teachers were killed in Uvalde, Texas. The Uvalde shooter legally purchased two assault rifles just after his 18th birthday. He had 30-round magazines but legislation to limit ammunition to 10 rounds have repeatedly failed.

Schools are all gun free zones.  Thus, all school shootings occur in gun free zones.  Do away with gun free zones so that a killer will know he will meet lethal opposition.  (Arm volunteer teachers.)  The recent killer in Buffalo NY stated he chose New York because of its strict gun laws making opposition less likely.

Another proposal is: Don’t elect D.A.’s who will not enforce the laws.

► Why would regulating gun ownership restrict our Second Amendment rights? Our Second Amendment reads in its entirety: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed." I find it interesting that its cites “a well regulated Militia.” Interestingly, voting is regulated but that in no way restricts my right to vote.

Concerning voting, have you not heard the whining about voting laws being too restrictive? 

The history of the 2^nd Amendment as related to “militia” is too complicated for a short answer here.  Try reading the Supreme Court decisions in Heller v DC and McDonald v Chicago, which explained it.

► Lastly, please be sure to explain the coincidence between the highest gun ownership per capita and the second highest gun total deaths worldwide. It has been reported that the states with the most guns also have the most gun deaths. In 2020, 45,222 Americans died by guns, or 124 each day. This is the highest number ever recorded, and a 43% increase from 2010. In 2021, 136 were killed in mass shootings, with one of every four deaths children or teens.

60+% of gun deaths, every year, are suicides.

90+% of other gun deaths, every year, happen with illegal weapons and illegal gun users so more laws will not impact them.

Per FBI statistics:

   More murders are committed with blunt objects (hammers) than all rifles.

   Many more murders are committed with knives than all rifles.

   More murders are committed with hands & feet than with all rifles.

On the other hand, the Center For Disease Control estimates that guns are used for defensive purposes 500,000 times a year.  (And that is considered a low estimate.)  Isn’t that a good reason to carry a gun?

As to children’s deaths, the surveys usually include, as children, teenage gang members and have been known to include children up to early 20’s.

NY Governor, Democrat leaders, Introduce New Ten Gun Control Bills.  by Tom Reynolds

•  Hunters affected: all semi-auto rifle transfers to require permit.

•  Untested microstamping may outlaw common handguns.

•  All eleven+ round magazines subject to potential destruction, confiscation or buyback.

•  Red Flag laws may eliminate doctor-patient privilege.

•  Pro-Second Amendment websites may be censored as “misinformation” or “hate speech.”

•  Gun dealers subject to expensive new requirements.

•  Other measures.

“Never let a crisis go to waste.”  Governor Hochul and her Democratic cohorts in the NY Senate and Assembly have introduced a slew of anti-gun bills.  If passed, they become the law and any attempt to overturn them will cost gun owners tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars while the state will use its unlimited taxpayer dollars to defend these laws.

Gun owners can make their feelings known, now, or wait to see their gun rights further eroded.  Speak up or be further silenced.

SCOPE’S comments follow the description of each bill.  While some may seem less onerous, in the hands of NY’s left-wing politicians and bureaucrats, they will be used against you.

A10503    S9458: require that someone obtain a license, with a minimum age of 21, to purchase or take possession of any semiautomatic rifle, not just so-called “assault weapons” and require recertification of that license every five years;

SCOPE: Hunters and plinkers who thought NYS would never come for them just got a nasty surprise.   They will now get to go through the same process as pistol permit applicants just to buy that “ranch rifle.”   Requires a license to use a constitutional right, even though rifles are used less in homicides than knives or feet and fists.

A7926   S4116: require microstamping for new guns, upon DCJS certification, and make unlawful sale of a non-microstamping-enabled firearm a crime; 

SCOPE:  Will eventually require all new pistols to be microstamped, a technology that does not work and is easily defeated.  Anyone who wants to buy a legal gun will be stuck with outdated pre-law pistols while criminals can obtain the newest and best.

A10428     S9229: eliminate grandfathering of more than ten round magazines and require destruction, surrender or buy-back;

SCOPE: Eliminates magazines that were purchased legally and sets a precedent for confiscating guns later.

A10502   S9113: expand the Red Flag law by expanding the list of people who can file for Extreme Risk Protection Orders, including your own doctor, and other measures;

SCOPE: Red Flag Laws already violate due process and medical privacy.  Expansion will discourage lawful gun owners from seeking treatment for fear of losing their constitutional rights and create an ever-larger bureaucracy that works to take away your rights without constitutional protections.

A10504     S9456: broadly define regulated firearms  to include any weapon not defined in the Penal Law that is designed or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by action of an explosive;

SCOPE: Appears to retroactively make certain unidentified weapons into “firearms” and, therefore, subject to the same regulations as handguns, assault rifles, etc.  Many New Yorkers may become criminals overnight without even knowing it.

A10497    S9407: prohibit the purchase of body armor for anyone who is not engaged in an “eligible” profession;

SCOPE: Eliminates civilians protecting themselves from criminals who will ignore yet another law.

A10501    S9465, A7865   S4511: increase accountability for social media platforms, target “hate speech” and “misinformation”;

SCOPE: A step to censor Second Amendment supporters and conservatives.   Statements like “guns save lives” will likely be labeled “misinformation,” or “hate speech,” ala COVID censorship or Hunter Biden’s laptop.  No chance it will find ANTIFA and BLM as violent extremists or domestic terrorists. 

A1023   S4970: require gun dealers to implement a security plan; prohibit persons under eighteen and not accompanied by a parent from certain locations of a gun dealer’s premises; adhere to record keeping requirements; and require the State police to conduct inspections of gun dealers every three years;

SCOPE: To overregulate gun dealers and drive them out of business.