Senate Republicans introduced a set of gun-control proposals today, including tougher laws against the sale and possession of illegal guns.
The measures call for stiffer penalties against those who use guns in crimes and a first-degree murder charge for those who kill emergency responders in the line of duty.
“We need to target illegal guns so innocent people don’t become targets for criminals who have them,” Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County, said in a statement. “The statistics prove that the overwhelming majority of gun crimes involve the use of illegal guns.”
The proposals come as Gov. Andrew Cuomo is expected to lay out his own gun-control plans in his State of the State address on Wednesday and as Democrats seek a tougher assault-weapon ban in New York.
Senate Republicans did not address assault weapons in their proposal, even though their colleagues in the Independent Democratic Conference said Friday they would seek the toughest assault weapon ban in the country. The five-member IDC and Senate Republicans agreed in November to share control of the 63-member chamber.
The deadly shootings in Newtown, Conn., and in Webster, Monroe County, involved assault weapons.
Updated: Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto criticized the Republicans’ proposal.
“Any gun policy that does not ban assault weapons ignores the reality of gun violence and insults the common sense of New Yorkers,” he said in a statement.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, told Gannett’s Albany Bureau last month that Democrats and Cuomo are in agreement over a stronger assault weapon ban.
Cuomo said last month the state’s current ban has “more holes than Swiss Cheese.”
3 Comments
The Republicans are stupid to be involved with any form of gun control at all.
The Democrats are stupid to believe that their ridiculous statist machinations would not, if passed and enacted, be struck down by the Supreme Court.
Ya can’t fix stupid.
My own Sunday, November 18th letter ran in the Medford, Oregon Mail Tribune. Titled,
“Not delighted” is exposes Republican deceit, hypocrisy, treason, and sell out! This
remains archived via http://www.mailtribune.com. Click on “Opinion” then “Letters to the
Editor.” Oh yes…..this same newspaper likewise ran my latest letter today titled,
“Understand Second Amendment.”
I despise RINO’s: Republican In Name Only! Like the late Alabama Governor George C.
Wallace rightly stated back in 1968: “There isn’t a dimes worth of difference between
the Democrats and Republicans!” Wallace was correct then, and remains so today. Why
do so many ignorant, deluded, dumbed down voters continue voting for this “lesser of
two evils” and blindly “suck up” to the party line? This constitutes deceitful stupidity and
ignorance! The honest alternative is an independent third party. I’m involved in the
Constitution Party of Oregon (www.www.constitutionpartyoregon.net).
As a Jewess in the US, I can only say that ANY anti-gun plan from an
ignoramus like Slow Joe Biden or his dirty Kenyan boss is bound to be a loser
idea. Certainly it will make all REAL Americans put our 2nd Amendment FIRST!
Both criminals and overbearing governments respect FIREPOWER, not sweet talk.
And remember that America wasn’t won with a registered gun!
-Wendy Weinbaum