We will be traveling up to Albany, NY with a busload of Long Island Firearms members to protest the NY SAFE Act within the legislative building. As far as I am aware, the legislator will be at work and the governor is also in Albany. Last time we went up on a Saturday. It was dead up that way, but we had a crowd of about 2,000 to get things a bit fired up. This time, as opposed to our January trip to Albany, to protest the same bill, we will actually be there while the legislature is in session. We have two buses going this time around. One full of LIF members and many LIF members and others on the second bus. Of course, there will probably wind up being thousands of other folks there to protest just as we will be doing.
We will be confronting, first hand, some of the most leftist politicians within the United States of America, maybe only beaten to being any further left by those in California. Hopefully our voices, the voices of the NY State gun owning citizenry and those of some few right wing NY politicians, the New York Rifle and Pistol Association, hopefully the NRA and SAF, right leaning media types, gun and ammo manufacturers and the like, will be heard loud enough to make a difference. We plan to be polite but loud and clear in our message: We The People will not bow to infringements of the 2nd Amendment any longer; the stripping away of our rights and liberties piecemeal must end and end now and our rights and liberties must be restored.
I think it will be a great trip. We had a good time back in January because we spent the day with one another and because it was something as worthwhile as anything we have ever done together.
The only drawback, this time, is that the administrator of Long Island Firearms has decreed that no one is allowed to bring firearms or anything that could be construed as a weapon, onto the bus and he will be checking. Imagine that a pro gun rights guy preventing others from carrying! Anyway, the bottom line is that since we will be entering government buildings we should be unarmed. As far as I am aware, there is no law in NY State against such, and there is certainly nothing in my pistol license handbook about it, except concerning federal buildings (and that is in part incorrect), but I have been informed that building security, for NY State buildings,
goes ape-shit if you try to enter with anything remotely hinting of weaponry. I would imagine, just as with almost any other government building I have entered while armed, they have lock boxes to secure arms if they do not allow them inside but I will go with the flow this time and leave all of my shooters at home along with my Victorinox Huntsman Swiss Army knife. Last time I had my Glock 26, my Ortgies pocket pistol, a Buck folder and the Victorinox knife. I had been thinking of carrying the Remington R1 1911 tomorrow but such will not be the case; instead I will be as if nekkid.
Hopefully whatever bag I take, to carry my lunch, will not have something like an empty shell casing inside of it. I have already checked and double checked and am pretty sure it is good to go. Shit, I have to check the laptop case since I am bringing my laptop. Who knows what is inside the many compartments of that black hole of Calcutta.
If you can be there, I highly recommend it. If you cannot not be there physically, then be there in spirit. Think of us and pray for us in the hope of us getting our message across and causing the NY SAFE ACT to be repealed.
All the best,
Glenn B
