By Todd Strelow

After reading Tom Reynolds’ article in the last issue of Firing Lines on the upcoming vote on a NY Constitutional Convention, I figured I’d throw my two cents in. Like Tom, I’m undecided on the value to gun owners for such a convention. This is not because I don’t see a need for change, but because I fear a change for the worse. I agree with Tom that the “Divide NY Group” plan to separate Upstate and NY City isn’t going to happen. But what could happen is ending gerrymandering of political districts. 

My suggestion (and I’m sure others have thought of this as well) is that we change the way Senate and Assembly districts are structured. For the Senate, make it a Senator for each County. For Assembly districts, make the rule for establishing these that the boundaries of the district must run along established Town or County lines. No piecemeal districts that include only little portions of Towns or Counties. Why should someone have to drive to another county to visit the office of their Senator? The Assembly can remain based on population (as long as district lines run along Town/ County lines) like the U.S. House of Representatives, but the NY Senate (modeling it after the U.S. Senate) would be one Senator per County. It works on a larger scale in the Federal government, why not here in NY? 

How does this help us? For one thing, I think it would give Upstate a greater voice in the Senate. Remember, Cuomo only won the majority vote in about a quarter of the Counties (I think it was 16 out of 62) in the last election. It also takes any confusion out of what district people live in, and I think it would lead to greater accountability for our elected representatives to the people. Complex problems often have simple solutions, and I think this would be a good start. 

In the meantime it’s extremely important that we continue to register our fellow gun owners to vote. Trust me when I say there’s a lot of them who aren’t registered (I registered/re-registered 22 gun owners to vote last year in the months leading up to the election). There shouldn’t be a gun/archery store in NY that doesn’t have a stack of voter registration forms on the counter. There shouldn’t be a gun show, gun auction, sportsman show, gun/archery store customer appreciation day, or any other gathering that would tend to draw large groups of gun owners, without someone there registering new voters. If you’re at an event selling raffle tickets for your gun club, you should have a stack of voter registration forms on the table. They are available from your county board of elections, ask for a whole package of them. Constitutional Convention or not, we are stuck with the SAFE act as long as Cuomo is our Governor. If we want it to be repealed, we need to vote Cuomo out of the Governor’s office (and keep him out of the White House!!). It’s up to US to make that happen!