By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
With only days left to get it done, New York State Democrats are scrambling to make state gun laws even tougher than they already are by passing “a series of new gun control laws” in the state Senate and sending them for action in the Democrat-controlled Assembly, according to the Albany Democrat and Chronicle.
At the same time, Spectrum News is reporting that mayors from around the Empire State are urging Democrat lawmakers to adopt legislation that “would make it easier for civil lawsuits to be brought against firearm manufacturers.”
“The measure would expand the state’s existing public nuisance law by adding gun makers who fail to take proper or reasonable safe guards to have their product fall into the wrong hands,” the report said.
Two decades ago, anti-gun mayors around the country tried unsuccessfully to sue the firearms industry into bankruptcy. Courts eventually rejected such legal actions and Congress, during the George Bush administration, adopted the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which protected gun makers from frivolous harassment lawsuits.
But in New York, apparently, the anti-gun crowd has forgotten.
“We must do everything we can to eliminate the scourge of violence that has cut too many lives short and devastated too many families,” Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers), said in a statement quoted by the newspaper.
The proposal is backed by Assemblywoman Pat Fahy and Sen. Zellnor Myrie, the news agency reported.
But current New York gun control laws have not prevented a rise in violent crime, despite promises to the contrary when they were adopted.
That notion was reinforced by a remark from Stewart-Cousins quoted in the Albany newspaper.
“By enacting this important legislation, we take another step closer towards further ending gun violence,” she reportedly stated.
According to the New York Times, the Memorial Day weekend saw seven murders in The Big Apple. The newspaper said police department data shows murders up 23 percent through May 23, with 165 posted as opposed to 134 last year during the same time period.
The New York City website says the overall crime index rose in 30.4 percent compared to April 2020.
But all of this could change because the U.S. Supreme Court has accepted for review a case challenging the state’s restrictive gun control law in a right-to-carry case. It will be on the October docket.
The case is known as NY State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Corlett. New York authorities habitually deny concealed carry permit applications and the Corlett case will put that practice on the spot.
However, in the meantime, anti-gun New York lawmakers appear determined to press whatever restrictive gun control laws they can.
