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NY passes 1st US gun control bill since massacre
Rain
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http://news.yahoo.com/ny-passes-1st-us-gun-control-bill-since-212027571.html
New York's Assembly on Tuesday easily passed the toughest gun control law in the nation and the first since the Newtown, Conn., school shooting, calling for a tougher assault weapons ban and provisions to try to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill who make threats.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo pushed hard for the bill, which passed the Senate on Monday night. He is expected to quickly sign the measure into law.
"This is a scourge on society," Cuomo said Monday night, six days after making gun control a centerpiece of his State of the State address. The bipartisan effort was fueled by the Newtown tragedy that took the lives of 20 first graders and six educators. "At what point do you say, 'No more innocent loss of life'?"
The measure, which passed the Assembly 104-43, also calls for restrictions on ammunition and the sale of guns.
"This is not about taking anyone's rights away," said Sen. Jeffrey Klein, a Bronx Democrat, when the bill passed the Senate late Monday night. "It's about a safe society ... today we are setting the mark for the rest of the county to do what's right."
Under current state law, assault weapons are defined by having two "military rifle" features such as folding stock, muzzle flash suppressor or bayonet mount. The proposal reduces that to one feature and includes the popular pistol grip.
Private sales of assault weapons to someone other than an immediate family will be subject to a background check through a dealer. New Yorkers also would be barred from buying assault weapons over the Internet, and failing to safely store a weapon could lead to a misdemeanor charge.
Ammunition magazines will be restricted to seven bullets, from the current 10, and current owners of higher-capacity magazines will have a year to sell them out of state. An owner caught at home with eight or more bullets in a magazine will face a misdemeanor charge.
Another provision places requirements on therapists, psychologists, registered nurses and licensed social workers who believe a mental health patient made a credible threat to use a gun illegally. They would be required to report such a threat to a mental health director, who would have to notify the state. Any registered handguns or registered assault weapons purchased before the ban could be taken from the patient.
The legislation also increases sentences for gun crimes including the shooting of a first responder that Cuomo called the "Webster provision." Last month in the western New York town of Webster, two firefighters were killed after responding to a fire set by the shooter, who eventually killed himself.
The measure passed the Senate 43-18 on the strength of support from Democrats, many of whom previously sponsored bills that were once blocked by Republicans.
The governor confirmed the proposal, previously worked out in closed session, also mandate a police registry of assault weapons, grandfathering in the estimated 1 million assault weapons already in private hands.
It was agreed upon exactly a month since the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy.
"It is well-balanced, it protects the Second Amendment," said Senate Republican leader Dean Skelos of Long Island.
Cuomo said he wanted quick action to avoid a run on assault weapons and ammunition.
Assemblyman Steve Katz said legislators were being "bullied." He said the bill is "solely for the governor's egotistical, misguided notion."
Republicans argued the bill wouldn't stop mass shootings or other gun crimes but instead turns law-abiding into potential criminals.
Republican Assemblyman James Tedisco said the bill was dangerous because it would give people a "false sense of well-being."
"You are using innocent children killed by a mad man for own political agenda," he said. "You are actually making people less safe."
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Suckers.
I've mentioned this on this site before, but I'll say it again on this monumental day. I'm a peacenik from the 70's. I have this odd thing about killing things. I have never fired a weapon. However, I'll protect my family in any way possible, and if I had one, use if needed. On top of that, I'll scratch the eyes out of anyone who tries to usurp your 2nd amendment rights. Long live liberty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The real reason they're not suitable? No room at the inn. During the Reagan years the mental health facilities populations were 90% returned to the local communities. About 50% of that was probably appropriate. A large number of those patients are reasonably stable, even productive, as long as they're properly supervised and medicated, and someone is watching out for the signs that they need a little down-time to regroup if they're getting out of hand.
Of course, they can't be productive if not allowed to be. At one time the state facility on my end of the state was essentially self-sustaining. They grew all their own food, led relatively productive lives in relative safety. The left considered that punishment, the right considered it a waste of taxpayer money. I wonder if we don't spend a lot more on them now, while actually providing less meaningful services.
I heard someone on a news program the other day say "We don't have a gun problem, we have a nut problem..." There may be a lot of truth in that.
Oh, and NY's law is stupid, and as usual, will only create more problems than it solves.
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
"Long ashes my friends."
Link
http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/19/us/north-carolina-gun-show-shooting/index.html
Every day in America, another 27 people die as a result of drunk driving crashes. (Statistics from MADD)
So now should we take away cars or alcohol? Aftert all, that is one more that Newtown.
EDIT: Sorry here is the full stats and attributed to NHTSA not MADD:
"Every day in America, another 27 people die as a result of drunk driving crashes."
(National Highway Traffic Safety Administration FARS data, 2012.)
Nobody is advocating taking away all guns in this country (as you imply), just regulating the kinds of guns that should be avaliable to the general population. I can hardly wait until these bills are passed, and the nutters in the NRA take them to the Supreme Court, where they will loose their argument once and for all because the Constitution talks about a "well regulated malitia", and the current CONSERVATIVE Supreme Court Justices have left the door wide open to such regulation.
"The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that... it is their right and duty to be at all times armed."Thomas Jefferson to John Cartwright, 1824.
"It is more a subject of joy [than of regret] that we have so few of the desperate characters which compose modern regular armies. But it proves more forcibly the necessity of obliging every citizen to be a soldier; this was the case with the Greeks and Romans and must be that of every free State. Where there is no oppression there can be no pauper hirelings." --Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1813.
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"No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms (within his own lands or tenements)." --Thomas Jefferson: Draft Virginia Constitution with (his note added), 1776. Papers, 1:353
I hear that over 300 people were killed last year with hammers. Let's ban those.
Something like 30000 die each year from falling. Gravity should be on the ban list as well.
More children will die this year from doctor malpractice than from mass shootings.
Read another stat about saving children. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 15,000,000 children die each year... of starvation. Feed them.
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
Here, I'll make it simple for you:
1) You haven't and you're talking out of ignorance
2) 16 inches
3) There's no such thing as an assault weapon, but this is an assault rifle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assault_rifle
4) Over 20,000
That said, I have to disagree with JDH myself in one area. I believe that there are quite a few powerful people and organizations that exactly DO want to take all guns away from everyone who isn't a cop or other government agent. Incrementalism is in fact the name of the game.
Look at this New York nonsense, "7 round magazines". How'd we end up with 10 in the first place? Limitations to "prevent future tragedies" were put in place back in the gangster era. Both of my .22's have 10 round capacities. An old Marlin rifle, and my .22 S&W target pistol, which I paid extra and waited 8 months to receive for the "bull" barrel, specifically so that I could put a couple hundred rounds, 10 at a time, without distortion. Under the NY madness, in a few months, the police could break my door down and arrest me for "assault" weapons.
Scare tactics. I think we can do better than that.
Anyone else ever read Abby Hoffman's "Steal this Book"? Lot's of info in there about bomb making. You can get all the stuff at Lowe's, or Walmart. Shall we shut down those enterprises for aiding and abetting terrorist activity? Makes as much sense as the new round of lunacy coming out of New York.
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain