Throw Out the Party of Gun Prohibition  by Don Smith

Their goal is to erase the right to “keep and bear arms.” There are many ways to defend the Second Amendment from this bunch, but the most effective is to vote against any member of the gun ban party at all levels: county or city council, state legislature and especially both houses of Congress.

Keep this in perspective: If anti-gun politicians are not in office, they cannot make their policies into law!

This should need no explanation, especially after New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s debacle last summer, when she grossly overstepped her constitutional authority in an attempt to prohibit lawful firearm carry in two counties. She exploited the tragic fatal shootings of three young people as an excuse to declare a “public health emergency” for which she wanted to suspend the Second Amendment. Yet none of the shooters involved in the murders of those children were licensed to carry. Fortunately, gun rights groups quickly took Grisham to court and a federal judge stopped her in her tracks.

Then we have our own governor who gave the middle finger to the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) by calling for a special legislative session and passing the Concealed Carry Improvement Act (CCIA). This followed the successful NYSRPA v. Bruen decision. When asked by a reporter if she could show that law-abiding citizens were truly responsible for shootings, she claimed, “She didn’t need any data”. How is she “protecting NY citizens” if she removes our opportunity to defend ourselves, when law enforcement are minutes away? Criminals, by the nature of the name, will never obey her laws.

John Lott — founder and president of the Crime Prevention Research Center and author of the groundbreaking book More Guns, Less Crime pointed out that the action taken by Grisham in New Mexico would only affect law-abiding citizens with concealed carry permits. He stated: “Every place in the world that has tried to either ban all guns or all handguns…every single time, murder rates have gone up…. We tried banning handguns in Chicago and Washington, DC, and what happened to murders? They went up.”

Let us not forget Gavin Newsom. His proposed 28th Amendment to the Constitution would — contrary to his claims otherwise — essentially nullify the Second Amendment. He knows this and he hopes you are all as stupid as the Californians who voted for him. The ultimate goal is to peddle this plan to all the other states. Meanwhile he and Grisham are doing nothing to protect us from the “invasion” of millions of foreign nationals crossing our southern border, many into their states.

Next is Joe Biden. Nearly three years ago, he admitted during a televised town hall forum broadcast by CNN he not only wants to ban so-called “assault weapons,” but also 9 mm pistols. This guy is relentless, and despite all of his gaffes, this is one thing about which he never seems confused. Recall, as Vice President, his goal was to “Go after the ammunition”.

Supreme Court Judge Thomas E. Moran of Monroe County in December 2023 held that NY CPLR article 63-A (“Red Flag” law / ERPO) “does not sufficiently protect a citizen’s rights and therefore is unconstitutional”. This law should never have been passed in 2019. Yet some at the federal level still seek such a law nationally.

House Democrats proposing a bill in 2022 to place a 1,000% tax on AR-15 rifles.Although the bill didn’t make any headway, that hasn’t stopped them from proposing the legislation for a second time. And it looks as though they are targeting supposed “high capacity” magazines as well. The tax would price regular, law abiding Americans out of the market. Specifically, a $500 AR-15 would immediately increase to $5,000, and a $2,000 rifle would become $20,000.

But it gets more devious than just placing a tax on AR-15 rifles. It appears they have also labeled most semiautomatic firearms as “assault weapons.” The same 1,000% tax would be imposed on any “semiautomatic assault weapon,” which last year’s bill defined as a semiautomatic rifle or pistol with a fixed magazine of 10 rounds or more or that have other various features. The bill was proposed after 100 Democrats expressed “disappointment” in House Speaker McCarthy for not moving on anti-gun legislation.

Democratic Assembly member Amy Paulin of Scarsdale says that although New York is one of the few states to require a background check on the purchase of ammunition itself, there is no corresponding law to prevent the straw purchase of ammunition, and she will introduce a bill to amend a section of the Penal Law to make straw purchases of ammunition a crime.

Paulin also says she will amend a bill she introduced in January aimed at making it more difficult for criminals to buy guns. She will redefine straw purchases and make it clear that the bill will apply to the purchase of ammunition as well. A federal firearms straw purchase law already exists.

The problem with such legislation was noted by Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation and chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, who pointed out that “None of their solutions fit the problem.”