It was a bad election day for New York gun owners. Tom King says:
I expect to see the following proposed legislation in both houses of state government shortly after the start of the 2009 legislative session Smart Gun, expanded COBIS, Micro Stamping of shell casings, an expanded assault weapons ban, reduction of magazine capacity, mandatory storage/insurance and renewable pistol licenses with very limited concealed carry. It is not a pretty scenario but it is not untenable.
Gun owners in New York State are going to need some help. One thing I would encourage of New York gun rights activists is that it is possible to work within the Democratic Party. We have some very anti-gun urban Democrats in Pennsylvania too, but we also have a lot of pro-gun Democrats, who are good on our issue. Unfortunately, one of them is John Murtha, but on guns, Murtha has been on our side. Sometimes you have to work with the political circumstances political fortunes stick you with.
You don’t understand. The NYS Democrats are controlled by the Tammany Hall Democrats. The ones outside NYC either do what they are told or they don’t get committee assignments and lulus, pork for the district, or campaign cash. There is no discussion or debate on the issues, any issue. They do what the Speaker of the Assembly and Majority Leader of the Senate says or they get cut off. Period. All the leadership cares about is getting money for Democrats and I was told point blank by an elected Democrat that Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver would not let any gun bills through unless I donated to Democrats. This was backed up about two years later when the Assembly Democrat conference called me. They asked two questions. 1. What is your agenda? 2. Can we have the list of candidates you’ve endorsed because “that would be very helpful.” That was it and it was more than NRA got. A month later they passed an expanded rifle hunting bill with no discussion.