from: https://www.recordernews.com/opinion/letters/132603
SANTABARBARA SOLD OUT SECOND AMENDMENT SUPPORTERS
Posted by Recorder News | Sep 6, 2018 | Letters | 1 |
To the editor,
For Second Amendment Supporters like myself, one bill has loomed large over the last several years. It’s been our rallying point. It’s defined our advocacy, and it’s become symbolic of this governor’s distaste for a deliberative legislative process and his total disconnect from Upstate.
I’m talking, of course, about the NY SAFE Act, rammed by the governor through the Legislature late at night and with no public debate. I don’t agree with Governor Cuomo on many things, but when he says it’s the strictest gun control law in the country, he’s not kidding.
My opponent voted for it. You would think he’d tout it to Democrats across the district. Instead, he’s doing something funny- he’s trying to convince Second Amendment supporters that he has their back.
Don’t fall for it. Angelo might have backed Second Amendment rights when he was a Republican, but since switching parties and taking tens of thousands of dollars from New York City special interest groups he’s decided it’s more convenient for him to shift his positions accordingly. Angelo had one chance, like every other member of the Legislature, to come through for us. He didn’t. Other Democrats who represent upstate areas in the Assembly have joined a chorus of Republican of voices calling for a SAFE Act repeal. Angelo isn’t one of them. He still makes the case to sportsmen that he shares their values. His grade from the NRA is 7. Not 7 out of 10, 7 percent out of 100.
If Angelo wants to talk about guns, he should go around the district and tell Democrats that he helped pass the strictest gun control bill in the country. What he shouldn’t do is tell a different story to those of us who believe in the constitution, who believe in civil liberties, and who believe that law-abiding, decent Americans should have the right to hunt, to secure their homes and to protect their families.
I’m a member of the NRA and NYSRPA. If you send me to Albany, you’ll never have to wonder how I’ll vote when it comes to protecting our constitutional freedoms. I stand with you.
Brian McGarry
Rotterdam
Schenectady County Legislator
and candidate for NYS Assembly