Capital District SCOPE

From: http://www.wgrz.com/article/news/local/cuomo-heastie-push-for-statewide-bump-stock-ban/71-508239062

Cuomo, Heastie Push For Statewide Bump Stock Ban
Bump stocks, used in the Las Vegas mass shooting, could be banned if Governor Cuomo and Speaker Heastie get their way. Gun rights advocates say they’ll pressure the State Senate to defeat the bill.

Author: Steve Brown
Published: 6:35 PM EST January 15, 2018

Five years ago today, Andrew Cuomo signed into law the SAFE Act, a package of gun control reforms the Governor has described as a model for the nation.  Now he and the Assembly Speaker would like to add to it with a ban on bump stocks.  The devices, used in the Las Vegas mass shooting in October, transform a semi-automatic weapon. A single pull of a trigger with a bump stock equipped firearm can produce a continuous flow of bullets, like an automatic weapon.

Months later, investigators are still at work. An official report on the investigation has not been released.  But last week, Carl Heastie identified a bill banning bump stocks is high on his legislative priority list for 2018.

Assembly Bill 8717 proposes to make it illegal to possess, manufacture, transport or sell bump stocks in New York State. A spokesman says Governor Cuomo supports the bill.  “‎The use of bump stocks is currently illegal in New York, but we would support legislation that builds upon our strongest in the nation gun safety laws and further restricts possession of these deadly killing machines,” says Rich Azzopardi (Cuomo’s spokesperson).  That leaves the only question mark on the issue in the State Senate. 2 On Your Side reached out to Republican Majority Leader John Flanagan asking whether he will support or oppose the legislation. We got no response.

But gun rights advocates like Tim Andrews, president of SCOPE-NY, know the State Senate is where the fight will be.  “I think our best hope of doing that is obviously in the Senate. I’m not saying by any stretch of the imagination I believe it would necessarily be easy to do. But that would be our focus. We will put all the pressure on we possibly can. We feel we have to,” says Andrews.

Andrews says control issues need to be handled on the federal level or they will not work. And although the influential National Rifle Association has signaled it believes the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms should regulate bump stocks, the Republican-controlled Congress has not taken up the issue.

We knew this was coming…. New York’s proposed ban on bump stocks.  Interestingly, a senate republican, Andrew Lanza (24th District) is the sponsor for the Senate version.

The information below came from a great web site: http://www.gunpoliticsny.com/?p=15699.

BUMP STOCK BALONEY
JAN 9, 2018 State Legislation

State of Politics reports that Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie backs a ban on “bump stocks”:

“… Lax gun laws are the reason handguns, bump stocks and military-grade assault rifles are crossing state lines and finding their way into our communities. We must take action as a state to curb this deadly pipeline …”

This is a phony non-issue, but that won’t stop antis from pushing the issue.

Heastie co-sponsors A-8717 which currently sits in Codes. Senate companion is S-6918 which is somewhat unusual in that it has a Republican sponsor and Democrat co-sponsor. This is the one they’re likely to try and move. Alternate version is A-8913/S-6902.

From the Times Union:
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo unveiled the first proposal of the 2018 State of the State: remove all firearms from those who commit domestic violence crimes. This legislation will require all domestic violence crime convictions, including misdemeanors, to result in the immediate removal of all firearms.

http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/279256/cuomo-looks-to-expand-gun-ban-for-domestic-violence/

My comment:   Domestic violence is horrible.  But there already is a law on the books against those convicted of domestic abuse from obtaining firearms.  This is just a ploy to take more firearms away from the people with only an accusation.  Call Governor Cuomo at 518-474-8390 and tell him we have enough gun laws already.  Someone will take a message.

Gun Granni and her crew are not going to re-certify their pistol permits.   They plan on taking it to court and are asking for your donations to help pay the legal costs.  Please donate something to their cause and spread the word.

https://www.gofundme.com/ny-recertification-resistance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-hrFUjt6Ig

Reciprocity will have an overall positive change on the gun culture of the US if passed. More people will obtain carry permits and be introduced to the normalcy of gun ownership.   They will in turn become more interested in rifles, shotguns, and sporting handguns.

Reciprocity is more important than just reciprocity in itself.

Local Representatives within the Capital District SCOPE Chapter:

Tonko – Nay

Faso – Aye

Most members of the New York House delegation opposed the concealed carry bill, including two Republicans — U.S. Reps. Dan Donovan and Peter King.

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Here is how the entire New York state congressional delegation voted:

YES
Rep. Chris Collins (R), Rep. John Faso (R), Rep. John Katko (R), Rep. Tom Reed (R), Rep. Elise Stefanik (R), Rep. Claudia Tenney (R), Rep. Lee Zeldin (R)

NO
Rep. Yvette Clarke (D), Rep. Joseph Crowley (D), Rep. Dan Donovan (R), Rep. Eliot Engel (D), Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D), Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D), Rep. Brian Higgins (D), Rep. Peter King (R), Rep. Nita Lowey (D), Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D), Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D), Rep. Gregory Meeks (D), Rep. Grace Meng (D), Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D), Rep. Kathleen Rice (D), Rep. Jose Serrano (D), Rep. Louise Slaughter (D), Rep. Tom Suozzi (D), Rep. Paul Tonko (D), Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D)

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Everybody Else – Final Vote Results:  http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2017/roll663.xml

excerpt:

Virginia Citizens Defense League is going to continue supporting H.R. 38, even when combined with H.R. 4434.

The idea is that gun owners will gain far more by having National Reciprocity than would be lost to the bad parts of the Fix NICS component.

There are various theories floating around as to whether combining the bills is either a good strategy that will help get National Reciprocity onto the President’s desk or a horrible strategy that will only get the Fix NICS bill on his desk. Should National Reciprocity die in the Senate, but Fix NICS survive, we will then contact our Representatives to kill the Fix NICS bill and also ask the President to veto the Fix NICS bill unless National Reciprocity is also put on his desk.

The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) is working to get an amendment to improve the Fix NICS part of the bill. That would be an ideal solution.

Virginia Citizens Defense League will push CCRKBA’s amendment to Fix NICS once we know which Representative is carrying it and once we can verify the wording.

You will be updated once I know more about the CCRKBA’s proposed amendments, hopefully on Tuesday. You will also be updated on the disposition of H.R. 38 once I find out how the vote went on Wednesday.

Article:  https://www.ammoland.com/2017/12/national-reciprocity-vote-in-house-this-week-but-there-is-a-twist

Here is what GOA says:

By now, it is very possible that the House will combine the “Fix NICS” legislation with the reciprocity bill.

Ultimately, Gun Owners of America prefers that Congress send a clean reciprocity bill to the President.

But if the House combines the two bills together, one of two things will happen.

First, combining the two bills could end up killing the Fix NICS legislation. As a stand-alone bill, because of the support of the NRA and many in the House leadership, Fix NICS has enough votes to pass VERY EASILY in the House and Senate.

But it is very likely that Democrats would oppose a combined bill and filibuster it in the Senate. For this reason, prominent Senate Republicans and Democrats oppose combining the two bills — because they don’t want to kill the Fix NICS legislation.

Second, there is the slight possibility that combining the two bills will help concealed reciprocity go to the President’s desk.

As the situation stands now, Senate Democrats have enough votes to filibuster and kill reciprocity. But a combined bill might encourage some Red State Democrats to break from Schumer and vote “aye” on the bill.

There is a dirty trick that happened to HR 38.  It was secretly amended to include the Fix NICs (HR 4477) legislation into it.   It goes to the House Rules Committee Tuesday (12/5) before the final floor vote.  The only way to get it amended to remove the Fix NICs text is to ask your representative to amend it to remove all the HR 4477 text.  Here is what I wrote:

Representative Tonko,
HR 38 was amended to include text from HR 4477 into it.  It is scheduled to go to the rules committee and get a House vote on Tuesday. HR 4477 text was added to HR 38 in a non transparent and sneaky fashion with no discussion. I want you to please amend HR 38 to remove all the text from HR 4477.
Sincerely,..

Please call or email your representative.  We want a clean vote on HR 38, not the one that was amended to include HR 4477.