Friday, January 18, 2013

Protesting The NY State Gun Control Legislation

My son and I will be traveling up to Albany, NY, tomorrow, along with 55 other members of Long Island Firearms to protest the latest round of NY State's anti-gun legislation. Sadly, said group, with a membership of over 6,000, could only get enough members, who committed to the trip, to fill one bus. I hope others will be driving up in their own vehicles. This protest had been planned as one to try to avoid passage of the legislation but Governor Cuomo and his henchmen pushed it through the NY State Senate and Assembly in record time earlier this week. Now it has become a protest after the fact.

The NY State legislation, that has been passed into law, will effectively make many firearms that use magazines holding more than 7 rounds obsolete. Why? I think because there will not be even one manufacturer that will go out of its way to produce the required 7 round magazines for their firearms for the group of owners who own those guns and who live in NY. Why would they and why should they? It would not be financially feasible for them to retool to make the 7 round mags for such a small group of gun owners. Of course there are pistols like the 1911, for which 7 round mags are standard but most other pistols and many rifles have magazines with higher standard magazine capacities than a mere 7 rounds.

The legislation also requires registration of assault weapons, outright bans many so called assault weapons, requires background checks to purchase ammunition, ends Internet sales of firearms to New Yorkers, outlaws selling assault weapons within NY even if legally owned (except to a relative) and forces all owners of magazines that hold more than 7 rounds to dispose of them out of state within one year, among other things. It applies to the police as well as the civilian population but the tyrants are already planning to change the law to exempt police officers so that their henchmen can be better armed than the populace. It got pushed through the NY legislative branch so fast that no one noticed they had forgotten to exempt law enforcement as they do usually. Then again, why should police officers and other LEOs be exempt from the law!

As for how it effects me: My Ortgies Pocket Pistol, that was manufactured in the 1920's, will become useless because no one is going to make 7 round mags for it. My Glock 19 probably will also become useless because Glock will unlikely manufacture 7 round mags. The same goes for my three 92 series pistols from Beretta and for my Beretta 70S, likewise for my Ruger MKII and the same for my High Standard Dura Matic. Why would any manufacturer make 7 round mags and run the risk of a state like CA or IL passing a law similar to NY's but demanding mags that only hold 6 rounds! Likewise for my rifles that utilize standard capacity magazines holding more than 7 rounds. For now, you can still use those higher capacity magazines but it would be illegal to load more than 7 rounds into them.

I am beginning to fear the time may be drawing near when we may hear the retorts of the citizenry by way of many guns being fired in revolt. If so, it may finally become clear to the politicians who passed this law as to why the right to keep and bear arms was enumerated in the 2nd Amendment. Hopefully this weekend's protest will remain peaceful and help accomplish something toward overturning the current tyrannical legislation.

All the best,
Glenn B