Legislative Issues
The purpose of this section is to help keep everyone informed of recent and/or proposed changes in federal, state & local legislation affecting the legitimate, responsible ownership and use of firearms.
"A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,
the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
Second Amendment
U.S. Constitution
Rights are NOT given to you, they EXIST without government. Our Governments' obligation is to PROTECT them. Our shared history is full of the men who made sure from the start of our nation that we would not be ruled by tyranny.
More and more you will start seeing legislative efforts described here and what you can do about them. YOU need to BE INVOLVED!!! If not, then you can EXPECT that people with agendas in the state of NY and the US Government will act as they please and step all over your rights in the process.
If you have an questions just e-mail the Legislative Chairman. --
Dave Panzera
Hey, Citizen of New York…Stand up - Be heard!!!.
NEW YORK: Paterson's Anti-Gun Proposal Still an Issue On Monday, May 19, Governor David Paterson (D) outlined a proposal that he plans to introduce that targets law-abiding gun owners and licensed gun dealers. The NRA strongly opposes this measure. Two areas that we specifically oppose are those that would implement more requirements for pistol license applicants without making licenses more accessible to those who qualify, as well as a plan to require licenses for employees of gun stores and granting the State Police broad authority to impose regulations on licensed dealers and gunsmiths. To view a copy of the press release on Governor Paterson's website, click here. Please call your State Legislators today at (518) 455-4100 and respectfully urge them to oppose this measure. To find your Assembly Member, click here. To find your State Senator, click here.
The following is a letter to the Editor of the Times Union by Dave Panzera on 31 May 2008 relating to the senseless criminal death of 10-year-old Kathina Thomas
What gun law would work on the LAW BREAKING criminal? (It could be your child 31 May 08)
The author is very revealing in that he or she would use the senseless murder of a child to impugn those who OBEY the thousands of gun laws on the books. As if the over 80 million law-abiding gun owners who have followed the 20,000 PLUS gun laws in this country had something to do with the crime, or, that it’s because of their desire to enjoy their individual right to a gun that this crime happened.
It did not. It had nothing to do with it.
Our country has an issue with violence to be sure. Neither do I deny that some of it involves gun crime. This poor child is an absolute example of the worst of what could confront a parent, their neighborhood and society at large. Whether by total accident or by criminal intent she is gone and what is truly the sweetest and most precious part of our heart is taken from us and gone with her. Nothing will console the parents, family or community. Even with the capture and conviction of the perpetrator there will never be that little girl to come home to, justice will not be had for that family even in the capture of this criminal.
Why?
Guns in the state of New York are already more tightly restricted than in all of the United States except for NY City and Washington DC. You must be a resident for a period of a year before you can even ask for the permit. Amazing that you can be a resident for tax purposes on day one but for the 2nd Amendment to exist you must be here a year. Then you go through a process that is laborious, costly, meant to frustrate you and restrict you and done so with the hopes that you give up and walk away. It will also take at a minimum of 4 months and can take as long as 6 months. That’s the law. In other words, no one in this state just goes out and gets one without a process so restrictive and revealing that the only other way to do so is break the laws, circumvent the system and at once become our hated enemy criminal.
No, the problem is a more far reaching one that begins with an unwillingness for us all to embrace standards to our children from the day they come into this world until the day we release them as adults in society. Whether we abdicate our roles as parents to the Television or the silver screen or to Gangsta Rap or vicious ideology we can not look at the law breaker and blame the inanimate object they use to commit crime. In this logic every knife, wire, or blunt instrument must also be held in the same contempt. The evil doer behind the knife or bat is just as bad as the one behind a gun.
Where then is the standard anymore? We are not allowed to spank for ugly and willful disobedience. We knee-jerk react to a boy kissing a girl in kindergarten and call it sexual harassment but fail to reach the heart of the playground bully whom we are supposed to talk to and set straight. Talk is cheap at times…especially to the violent bully-minded thug who snickers as he or she walks away from being forced to say “Sorry” without meaning it to the one he or she offended. We have lost our way. How many of you remember what double jeopardy meant as a kid? It meant when you disobeyed the rules, disrespected the teachers or others at school you were in trouble at school AND at home. Somewhere along the way the discipline turned on the light and what came fourth was a respectable citizen who then was able to find their way in the world with faith in their fellow man and hope for their future. How many of us want to bet that the reckless criminal who fired the gun has no respect for his fellow man? Millions remember their parents getting a phone call from a caring neighbor about the mischief you got into. You know, the good old “Parent Network” that seemed to have eyes and ears everywhere. It seems to exist only in pockets of our society now. Broken families are not an excuse either as they have existed over our entire history and yet when we had standards and enforced them even the fatherless or motherless among us was a well adjusted and law-abiding person of great moral character. We have to stop excuses to ourselves as well.
This ugly problem can be turned around. However, if you really believe that a law, even a total ban on guns will cease the criminal activity you are not facing reality. It will take the concerted effort of ALL of us to rediscover discipline in love, standards of conduct, a firm belief in moral absolutes and a willingness to demand them of our children to pass on a great future for them instead of a hopeless one. Gun bans have never worked; criminals will only enjoy a defenseless victim class. Morality on the other hand DOES work and has proven itself time and again throughout human history.
I am not of the mind that one has to have a gun as many law-abiding millions do. I am, however, of the mind that regardless of whom you are, where you live, how much you make, or what your status may be, that it should be demanded of you to conform to a moral standard that is common to us all. The society that does this enjoys a far greater degree of safety and respect among it’s members than others.
I would say that not just for the sake of this little girl but for all of us we have an obligation to return to a commonly shared desire to raise up a generation of law-abiding, person-respecting citizens who understand what it is to be moral. Yes, it does include our many faiths, but even with our many differing faiths we agree that moral underpinnings for our children are the same. Use that to your advantage and in every circumstance use every moment you can for a lesson in morality and when they grow up…they will not act with such reckless abandon in such a criminal fashion and destroy the most precious gifts among us.