As New York Second Amendment Attorneys we are constantly monitoring upcoming gun legislation. Following up on our blog the Twelve Most Ridiculous Gun laws, we just may have to revamp the whole list with some of the crazy new ideas that we have been hearing lately. So lets look at a roundup of recent gun legislation and suggestions.
New York has recently passed some ridiculous gun laws recently criminalizing the possession of unfinished frames which can basically include an hunk of aluminum, plastic or polymer. In addition, New York has made it a crime for a convicted felon to possess innocuous gun parts such as barrels or triggers. Nothing that can fire; possession of just the parts is now a crime.
Today, I read that there is legislation pending in Albany to require licenses to possess or purchase a semi-automatic rifle. Now remember, so called “assault rifles” are already banned in New York so this is for semi-automatic hunting rifles. How many of these semi-automatic rifles are used in crimes in New York any year? Keep in mind, that New York City already requires licensing of long guns and we can watch the news and see how that is going.
Not to be outdone, Congress is trying to move forward on some of the same (and different) laws that are already not working in New York. Congress wants to also require serialization of unfinished frames or receivers, codify the already existing ATF regulation which bans bump stocks, ban the possession of rifles by 18, 19 and 20 year old men, some of whom we train on the very same weapons, to defend our Country and nationalize the red flag laws that would be similar to the New York law that failed to stop the recent mass shooting in Buffalo.
While the idea of a quick fix that would stop mass shootings is very attractive I do not believe that there is a rational person in this Country that believes any of these ideas will stop mass shootings. Rather, this is part of an overall strategy to incrementally reduce and ultimately eliminate individual gun ownership rights. Firstly, as we have found out the hard way, making something illegal doesn’t eliminate it or even necessarily make it hard to get. It just empowers organized crime to get into a new business.
This lesson was true during prohibition from the 1920s to the early 1930s and has been true in the war that we have been fighting on drugs for at least the last 50 years. No place is this issue more obvious than in the nations jails and prisons where despite the walls, barbed wire, metal detectors, guards, searches and laws prohibiting it, drugs are rampant in our Nations jails and prisons. Recently, I was contacted by a State Corrections investigator who wanted our client’s help in investigating a drug overdose that occurred in a New York State prison.
There is little credible evidence that the nationwide “assault weapon” ban from the 90s did anything to reduce crime. Similarly, the Gun Free School Zones Act of 1990 seems to have done absolutely nothing to reduce school shootings even though it made it a Federal Felony to bring a gun to within 1000 feet of a school. A statute which the Uvalde shooter and any other school shooter necessary violates. Does, anyone really believe that potential school shooters will obey any of these proposed gun laws?
It is time to stop proposing ridiculous gun laws and start having an honest conversation about what is wrong in a society that tolerates thousands of innocents being shot in our inner cities including often 50or more shootings per weekend in Chicago.