Since all the previous laws didn’t work, let’s try it harder!<\/p>\n
New York governor signs gun control package into law<\/a><\/p>\n The Supreme Court has yet to officially opine on the constitutionality of New York\u2019s \u201cmay issue\u201d permitting laws for concealed carry licenses, and now a host of other newer restrictions will likely be getting court attention in the days ahead. On Monday, Gov. Kathy Hochul\u00a0signed several sweeping new restrictions<\/a>\u00a0into law, including a ban on sales of so-called assault weapons to adults under the age of 21, new registration requirements for all owners of modern sporting rifles, and an expansion of the state\u2019s \u201cred flag\u201d law that could have some unintended consequences for those in need of mental health services or counseling.<\/p>\n The laws were rammed through the Democrat-controlled legislature last week as a response to the mass shooting at a Buffalo grocery store in which ten people were murdered by an 18-year old suspect, and during today\u2019s signing ceremony Hochul and other Democrats made it clear that even more restrictions are on the way.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThoughts and prayers won\u2019t do it, but strong action will,\u201d Hochul urged, adding in a message to members of Congress, where gun-control has stalled: \u201cHeaven help you if you look at those images and don\u2019t have a change of heart.\u201d<\/p>\n The Red Flag law in New York will be expanded to allow more people, including health-care professionals, to file risk orders that could lead to weapons confiscations from potentially dangerous people. And it requires, rather than allows, law enforcement to seek an order if credible information is provided.<\/p>\n Semi-automatic rifles, which already difficult to obtain in New York, will added to the list to the weapons requiring a permit and will only be available to those over age 21.<\/p>\n Another bill would ban the sale of body armor to people outside law enforcement or other state-designated professions, and it will add microstamping to bullets \u2014 which can better trace their origin. Social media companies will be required to improve their policies around how they respond to hateful conduct on their platforms, as well as \u201cmaintain easily accessible mechanisms\u201d for the public to report people.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will be ready to defend these laws against challenges,\u201d Attorney General Tish James said at the news conference with Hochul and other Democratic leaders.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Second Amendment is not absolute.\u201d<\/p>\n James\u2019 comments come as New York awaits a U.S. Supreme Court case in the coming weeks that is\u00a0expected to overturn its concealed carry ban. If the judges overturn the law, state lawmakers have already pledged to come back to the state Capitol to pass a new law that would limit those who have concealed carry permits.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Second Amendment may not be absolute in the eyes of the courts, but it\u2019s not a nullity either, and James may have a difficult time defending the bulk of these laws, including the ban on sales of semi-automatic rifles to adults under the age of 21. The Ninth Circuit recently overturned a\u00a0similar ban<\/a>\u00a0in California, and Florida\u2019s ban on gun sales to under-21s is currently being heard in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals as well.<\/p>\n As far as the\u00a0effectiveness\u00a0<\/em>(as opposed to the constitutionality) of these laws, New York\u2019s handgun registration scheme hasn\u2019t prevented more criminals from illegally obtaining and using handguns in the commission of violent crimes, and I doubt that the state\u2019s new restrictions on modern sporting rifles are going to do anything of substance other than prevent law-abiding young adults from purchasing the most commonly-sold rifle in the country. The state\u2019s new microstamping law is likely to lead to\u00a0a slow-motion ban on \u201cnoncompliant\u201d handguns<\/a>, but isn\u2019t going to curtail any criminal enterprises either.<\/p>\n The expansion of New York\u2019s \u201cred flag\u201d law also poses some problems that anti-gun Democrats don\u2019t seem to have thought much about. By expanding the list of individuals who can petition the courts for an Extreme Risk Protection Order to include counselors and health-care professionals, Hochul and company have now increased the likelihood that some gun owners will choose to\u00a0not\u00a0<\/em>seek help if they\u2019re struggling because of their fears that they might be subjected to a \u201cred flag\u201d petition and have their firearms seized simply for getting counseling. Instead of removing the stigma around gun ownership and mental health, Hochul and her anti-gun allies in the legislature have helped to codify it into law, and my suspicion is that the uintended consequences are going to be long-lasting and widespread.<\/p>\n Of course, if that is the case then the governor will simply use those failures to call for even\u00a0more\u00a0<\/em>criminalization of the right to keep and bear arms. After all, New York\u2019s SAFE Act, approved in 2013, clearly didn\u2019t do the trick, and when this current gun control package fails to stop committed killers and violent criminals from preying on the innocent we\u2019ll once again hear calls from New York Democrats demanding another round of restrictions and promising increased security at the expense of our right to self-defense. Rinse and repeat, and the only thing that really changes is that a right of the people is whittled down to a privilege to be doled out by the state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Since all the previous laws didn’t work, let’s try it harder! New York governor signs gun control package into law The Supreme Court has yet to officially opine on the constitutionality of New York\u2019s \u201cmay issue\u201d permitting laws for concealed carry licenses, and now a host of other newer restrictions will likely be getting court … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-goobermint","category-rkba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=81984"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81985,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81984\/revisions\/81985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}