Gillibrand tries again, with Schneiderman's help, to push a gun bill
Gillibrand and Schneiderman joined by Michael Wolkowitz and Jackie Hilly. Reid Pillifant
9:00 am Dec. 5, 20115
It was a Sunday press conference, and it was about gun control. But it wasn't at the office of Chuck Schumer.
On Sunday afternoon, the state's junior senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, hosted Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and anti-gun advocates at her office on Third Avenue, to announce she was re-introducing the Gun Trafficking Prevention Act.
Schumer made guns a defining issue of his tenure in the House, but, as he's ascended the Senate leadership, and gun control has disappeared from the agenda of the national party, the senior senator has mostly ceded the issue to Gillibrand.
The junior senator, who had some making-up to do with downstate liberals when she was elevated to the Senate from her conservative-leaning House district, first introduced the bill after her appointment in 2009.
"Senator Gillibrand's reintroduction of this bill is one of the reasons she's a personal hero of mine," said Michael Wolkowitz, who sits on the board of the Brady Campaign to End Gun Violence, in his remarks on Sunday. "The senator is at the forefront of so many important issues that are more frequently in the news ... And yet she stands here on a Sunday reintroducing this bill. She continues to show the courage to stand for everything she believes is important."
Which is not to say that much has passed. Since Schumer helped shepherd the Brady Bill to passage in 1993, the National Rifle Association has developed a death-grip on similar bills, with gun-control advocates mostly playing defense against pro-gun measures like the Thune Amendment. Some local Democrats tried to push the issue in the wake of Gabrielle Giffords' shooting earlier this year, but none of those measures have advanced.
"It is really remarkable that in December of 2011, we have to stand here to hear Senator Gillibrand say she's introducing a bill to make gun trafficking illegal," said Schneiderman, who championed several gun-control measures during his time as a liberal state senator representing the Upper West Side. "It's just astonishing."
The re-introduction of the bill comes on the heels of Schneiderman's announcement last week that his office had arrested 10 gun dealers who were caught selling guns to undercover agents who readily admitted they wouldn't pass a background check. The bill would stiffen federal penalties for gun sellers who skirt the background check.
"This is a bill that does not actually affect law-abiding citizens or the Second Amendment," Gillibrand said, when asked why this bill might be more successful than previous efforts. "I think the reason why this has a chance or is the type of legislation that could pass in a bipartisan way, is that it's focused entirely on the criminals."
The last time Gillibrand introduced the bill, it garnered only two co-sponsors—Schumer and New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg—before stalling in committee.
I don't get it. Isn't it already illegal to shoot someone? Isn't it illegal, in NY to possess a firearm without a permit? ISN'T it illegal, already, not to conduct a background check? (For a hint, check the article above, pointing out that ten dealers were arrested for violating the law that requires them to conduct a background check. Of course, those are just arrests, let's see how many he convicts.)
All rhetorical questions, actually, just to point out that the other laws are NOT accomplishing anything, but somehow, magically, adding one more will.
There are already plenty of laws focused on the criminals, one has to wonder just what other agenda Gillibrand has.
Let's compromise. I would pass this if they add the National Concealed Carry Recoprocity Act to it. One thing for the gun grabbers that really won't change much and one thing to the gun nuts that really won't change much. If they can't accept a compromise, then the status quo is fine with me and we pass the National Concealed Carry Recoprocity Act next year anyway.
When will these people understand that the criminals really don't care what law is passed. They actually like more restrictions on law abiding citizens, that way they will have less resistance.
No law ever passed has ever stopped any criminal from what they desired to do. Restrict gun rights farther and all teh will happen is the criminals will make more money.
Think I am wrong? Look at alcohol and prohibition, or the equally stupid "war on drugs". At least with prohibition they got the message and repealed it.
The fact that she cannot get co-sponsors shows that there is stupid stuff in the proposed law. She wants to look like she is "doing something" even if it is ineffective or counter-productive. The Second Amendment is explicit and does not require 20,000+ laws to clarify it.
How about less laws in general coming out from Congress? How about efforts to rescind the numerous intrusions on our freedoms? How about defunding, disbanding or consolidation of the huge number of governmental departments that all have ever increasing budgets and mission creep.
That would be leadership!
This law makes illegal something that is already illegal. Like the rest of the anti-gun lobby, this senator has no idea what she's doing. Something that should also be corrected in her statement is the 10 dealers part. It was 10 individuals attempting to conduct a private sale, not gun dealers. Probably people that weren't clear on the law, and were just trying to get money for grandpa's old guns? We'll never know.
The second amendment is very clear, I'm not sure what part of SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED this senator doesn't understand. Less government control and regulations is a good thing, we don't need people like her trying to pass laws about something they don't even understand.