By Ian Gargan
Governor Kathy Hochul of New York is formulating a plan to strip away the Second Amendment rights of New Yorkers in the aftermath of a 6-3 ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court in favor of the NYS Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. Hochul, hopefully only the interim governor, who assumed the gubernatorial seat after disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo stepped down, did not find the decision favorable. In the manner of a four-year-old child who is losing a game, she has decided that if she can’t win, then she will just change the rules.
After the confetti had fallen following her victory in the primaries, she signed a package of gun reform legislation that will hurt legal gun owners while only making New York a safer place for criminals. The legislation raises the age to purchase a rifle to twenty-one (the age to join the military remains at 18). It also introduces new hoops for legal gun owners to jump through to exercise their second amendment rights. The outrageous new requirements include 16 hours of classroom training, two hours of live range training, and an 80% written test score. But it doesn’t end there.
Following all the training and testing, one must then meet with a licensing officer for an interview. At that time, you will provide them the names, ages, and contact information for all members of your household. The next step is to provide four character witnesses from outside your household. These witnesses must attest that you are of “good moral character.” But who is truly the judge of good moral character? Terms like this are in place to make a review process impossible in the event the application is denied. In that case, how would one prove they are of good moral character?
If you manage to skate past the character assessment, you are now ready for the last step in this gauntlet – you will need to provide the licensing officer with all your social media accounts. The licensing officer will browse through your current and past posts to find any statements, photos or meme’s that could disqualify you from your exercising your constitutional rights. (Having second thoughts about posting those pics of Fido in his camouflage sweater?)
Hochul claims “we’re tightening the red flag laws to keep guns away from dangerous people.” But in places like New York City, most crimes are committed with illegally owned guns. Mayor Adams bragged about the NYPD pulling twenty guns off the street a day, which just reinforces how many potentially illegal guns are flooding the streets of NYC. And with the new cashless bail policies, criminals could just go home and grab a different gun.
The attack on law abiding gun owners is so off the mark it can only be about one thing: Control! As evidenced by her overreaching Covid protocols, Hochul loves the power to control the citizens of New York. In a press conference she was asked if she had statistics supporting the idea that legal gun owners were the cause for the violence in her state, to which she replied, “I don’t need to have numbers. I don’t need to have a data point.” Who needs facts, right? I know when I’m at the doctor, they don’t order tests. They just prescribe my meds based on how the doctor feels. If he thinks my blood pressure is high, it’s probably high and I don’t dare question it.
So, despite every hurdle being cleared and hours on paperwork, lessons, background checks, friends writing letters and social media scrutiny, it has been deemed that certain places in New York should be completely gun-free zones. These places include churches, Times Square, libraries, arenas, theaters, stadiums, playgrounds, polling places, parades, bars and restaurants, and privately owned businesses, unless they have a sign saying they permit concealed carry on their premises. It’s the equivalent of posting a sign saying “Unarmed People Here.” What a wonderful way to alert a crazed shooter to where the innocent victims are. Hochul would prefer citizens leave their guns in their oft-robbed cars while attending church.
I hate to speak in clichés but the only one who can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. If we are going to make it difficult for people to protect themselves, that’s one thing. But to make them sitting ducks is quite another.
Let’s hope for a massive turnout this year where we vote in a more reasonable and Conservative governor for New York. Someone who is less focused on stripping constitutional rights and more focused on offering a decent public education. If Kathy Hochul remains in charge after November, who knows what tyranny will be unleashed.