Remember the roadside billboards the gun prohibitionists put up a while ago that read “NRA Is A Terrorist Organization”? It was a classic example of why reasoned dialogue so seldom takes place in the polarized debate over guns in America.  Our side feels like black folks trying to talk with Klansmen who are spitting the N-word at us.

The 5/26/22 edition of the Houston Chronicle newspaper reported on the planned anti-NRA protests at that city’s convention center. One of the protest organizers, Neil Aquino, was quoted as saying, “If the city can determine that protests are illegal gathering and disperse them, then why can’t it declare an NRA convention with Trump and Cruz a center of insurrection and domestic terrorism? I don’t understand how domestic terrorists and insurrectionists preaching replacement theory get use of the convention center in the most diverse city in America.”

Ashton Woods of Black Live Matter Houston apparently didn’t notice how many African-American NRA members were in attendance. He told the Chronicle, “We’re (Black Lives Matter) not here to incite anything, we’re just here to make the (NRA) uncomfortable and run them out of Houston.”

The atrocity in Uvalde touched us all.  It is human nature after such a cataclysmic incident to “want to do something.” Unfortunately, that often translates into “we must blame – and punish – someone.” 

Empty symbolism comes into play. The tool of the murderer becomes the focus. Then, by extension, anyone who owns such tools becomes the next focus of the anger.  It is the antithesis of logic, but emotion has a way of pushing logic aside.

So, let’s try some logic. Logic encompasses history. Uvalde is about 160 miles from Austin, where the first school shooting massacre occurred more than half a century ago.  In 1966, ex-Marine Charles Whitman ascended the Texas Tower on the University of Texas campus in Austin, and rained death on the citizens below, using primarily a five-shot bolt-action deer rifle. His ultimate toll was 18 dead and 31 wounded. Half an hour into the roughly 90-minute ordeal, the slaughter ceased…because armed citizens on the ground with their own rifles returned fire and pinned the mass murderer down behind cover. This set the stage for armed citizen Allan Crum to lead Austin officers to the peak of the tower to confront Whitman.  Crum, armed with a semiautomatic Remington .30 caliber rifle, fired the first shot of the rescuers’ gun battle; Officer Ramiro Martinez emptied his Smith & Wesson .38/44 revolver at the gunman; and Officer Houston McCoy dropped Whitman with two blasts of double-0 buckshot to the head and neck from a Winchester 1200 shotgun.  In the excellent book “Tower Sniper: the Terror of America’s First Active Shooter on Campus,” authors Monte and Nathan Akers and Dr. Roger Friedman prominently mention “dozens of students and bystanders who seized rifles to fire at the sniper in the Tower from the ground.” Officer Martinez, who later became a Texas Ranger, wrote a book titled “They Call Me Ranger Ray” in which he flatly stated it was the armed citizens on the ground who stopped the killing.

How quickly America forgets.

43 COMMENTS

  1. There something that many of us missed about this little town near the border in south Texas. It just happens to be the hometown of Matt McConaughey. Matthew McConaughey visits (hometown) of Uvalde after shooting to meet with families. Pres. Joe Biden, before leaving the Uvalde church, Biden walked over to demonstrators gathered nearby and, as they chanted “Do something,” he responded by mouthing the words “We will.” NBC Universal.
    None of this is a coincidence. The extreme left would like nothing better than to unseat Gov. Abbott and replace him with a Hollywood stooge, or even a Beto stooge for that matter. The extremists from the left will stop at nothing and we have seen this stage played out many times now ever since Dec. 14, 2012, Sandy Hook Newtown Ct. If we miss the big picture, then we die on the vine. Every time we go with their lies and begin the fight at that point of reference then we lose. We have to reposition our understanding of who and what is behind these events. The staging of the Uvalde event couldn’t have been more timely and more scripted. If we are going to be effective in this life and death struggle, then we as the last Bastian of liberty seekers will have to break from the mainstream media’s narrative and go after the truth on our own.

  2. The difference between the latest mass murder & the Texas Tower incident was, in this case, the citizens (parents) were prevented from arming themselves & ending it. Surely some may have been wounded or killed in the effort but who wouldn’t risk their life to save their children?

  3. How to stop school shootings in 3 easy steps:
    1-Abolish the FBI
    2-Abolish Gun Control
    3-Abolish Public Schools

  5. We know what to do. Even the fed gov knows what to do. They performed the authoritative analysis on the subject of securing our schools.

    https://www.secretservice.gov/sites/default/files/2020-04/Protecting_Americas_Schools.pdf

    But “we” are either unwilling, or more likely content to use these massacres as a political tool. The left is utterly despicable. Not one more inch. No more compromise. That goes for the RINOs too. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio need to get off the red flag bandwagon. In these shooting instances, the offenders are known to law enforcement and the community as wackjobs. These killings reflect the utter failure of government to take early action. What possible new law would help? None. Ample law exists now to divert and/or surveil these scumbags. Therefore one must conclude they don’t want to stop it.

    • Wood,

      Right you are. No more compromising with the Left. Do not give them one inch. We should not have even given in on the bump stock issue, although that is the perfect bone to let them have. Who needs bump stocks? Nevertheless, as a matter of principle, we should not give them one inch of what they want, as you said.

      Agreeing with our enemy emboldens them. They come back again and again to kill us little by little, death by a thousand small cuts. Stand firm.

      The good news is that the Left is not enforcing laws anymore. Therefore, we will be free to ignore any law they pass. Even if they try to enforce their laws against us, we need to resist them.

      They hate us. If we compromise with them, and let them have their way, they will still hate us.

    • We also need to figure out what changed since the 50s. No one seems to be interested in trying to figure out how elementary school kids could keep guns in the coat closet of their classrooms, so they could shoot after school, and there were never school shootings. What is different?

      As Garrett Hardin used to opine, it’s important to not treat symptoms, and instead concentrate on the disease.

  6. I am not sure there can ever be sane dialog on this issue. It is impossible to use reason and logic on a liberal fanatic. All they know is emotion.

    Logic tells us that bans and confiscation never work. They didn’t work with prohibition, they haven’t worked with drugs and only create a thriving criminal element ready to fill the void.

    God help this once great Republic!

    • Winters,

      Well written. We have tried to help the other countries of the world be like us, or at least imitate the good things about the USA. We have had mixed results, but I would argue mostly failure. The worst is looking at Iraq and Afghanistan. We offered them a choice between following Jefferson or Muhammad. They chose Muhammad. At least the tough ones chose Muhammad. The ones in the Middle East who want to live like Jefferson are quiet or dead.

      Now, we are slipping and sliding into third-world-ism. {A phrase I heard from Bob Grant}.
      Instead of helping other countries up, we are falling to become losers like they are. The thing is, other countries are not pulling us down, rather, WE ARE COMMITTING SUICIDE!! We are doing this to ourselves.

    • Confiscation works incredibly well. Just look at how effective it was when the Nazis wanted to murder all of those Jews. Or Stalin wanted to murder Russians. Or Pol Pot wanted to murder Cambodians. Or the Turks murdering Armenians.

      There are countless more examples where insane, murderous leftists disarmed populations before slaughtering them.

  7. Politically, I am optimistic. One thing, most people don’t pay attention to the pundits.. Second, once the emotions die down, people move on to other things. Third, the hateful rhetoric and guerilla theater is off putting. And finally, when most people really start to think about, realistically, they realize that we have a mental heater problem in this country and that criminals will be the only ones who have guns.

  8. Clues Biden demands ban on 9mm handguns.

    Biden calls 9mm ‘high-caliber weapons,’ suggests banning them
    DOJ investigating Texas school shooting as community members demand action from Biden
    Unmute
    0
    President Biden on Monday took aim at 9mm handguns, appearing to suggest that the “high-caliber weapons” ought to be banned.

    The president made the remarks outside the White House after returning from a visit to the site of a mass shooting in Texas where 21 people, including 19 elementary school children, were killed last week.

    President Joe Biden speaks to members of the media on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, May 30, 2022, after returning from Wilmington, Del. AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
    © AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
    President Joe Biden speaks to members of the media on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, May 30, 2022, after returning from Wilmington, Del. AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
    Recounting a visit to a New York trauma hospital, Biden said doctors showed him X-rays of gunshot wounds.

    “They said a .22-caliber bullet will lodge in the lung, and we can probably get it out — may be able to get it and save the life. A 9mm bullet blows the lung out of the body,” Biden said.

    WARRIORS’ STEVE KERR APPLAUDS GIANTS’ GABE KAPLER FOR NATIONAL ANTHEM PROTESTS AFTER UVALDE TRAGEDY

    “So, the idea of these high-caliber weapons is, uh, there’s simply no rational basis for it in terms of self-protection, hunting,” Biden added. “Remember, the constitution was never absolute.”

    “You couldn’t buy a cannon when the Second Amendment was passed,” Biden said. “You couldn’t go out and purchase a lot of weaponry.”

    The president, however, ruled out the possibility of issuing an executive order on guns, saying: “I can’t dictate this stuff.”

    UVALDE, TEXAS – MAY 26: A memorial is seen surrounding the Robb Elementary School sign following the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School on May 26, 2022 in Uvalde, Texas. According to reports, 19 students and 2 adults were killed, with the gunman fatally shot by law enforcement. Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images
    © Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images
    UVALDE, TEXAS – MAY 26: A memorial is seen surrounding the Robb Elementary School sign following the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School on May 26, 2022 in Uvalde, Texas. According to reports, 19 students and 2 adults were killed, with the gunman fatally shot by law enforcement. Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images
    “I can do the things I’ve done and any executive action I can take, I’ll continue to take. But I can’t outlaw a weapon. I can’t change a background check. I can’t do that,” he said.

    BIDEN SAYS MCCONNELL IS A ‘RATIONAL REPUBLICAN’ TO WORK ON GUN CONTROL WITH, WARNS EXECUTIVE OPTIONS ARE LIMITED

    Biden’s comments were in line with his tough stance on guns during the 2020 presidential campaign. Speaking during a fundraising event in Seattle in November 2019, Biden said he supported the Second Amendment but called absolutist arguments about gun-rights “bizarre.”

    “Why should we allow people to have military-style weapons including pistols with 9-mm bullets and can hold 10 or more rounds,” he said.

    The Second Amendment is once again in the crosshairs after a lone gunman, identified as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, killed 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, some 85 miles west of San Antonio.

    The assault was the deadliest shooting at a U.S. grade school since a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, nearly a decade ago.

    Microsoft may earn an Affiliate Commission if you purchas

    • “So, the idea of these high-caliber weapons is, uh, there’s simply no rational basis for it in terms of self-protection, hunting,” Biden added. “Remember, the constitution was never absolute.”

      “You couldn’t buy a cannon when the Second Amendment was passed,” Biden said. “You couldn’t go out and purchase a lot of weaponry.”

      No leftist that I ever met knew the first thing about firearms and weapons (or the Constitution for that matter!). Why in the world does anybody pay any attention to them on this subject? Would you ask an Eskimo for tips on sailing in the tropics? Well, most Eskimos would know more about that subject then a leftist knows about firearms.

      Heck, on most days, Biden does no know in which State he is currently standing!

      The Constitution was never absolute? Sorry, Joe, but the Constitution is the highest law in the land. It is about as absolute as anything gets.

      You could not buy a cannon when the 2nd Amendment was passed? This statement, which Biden keeps repeating, has been shown to be utterly false. See this link:

      https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/06/26/fact-check-biden-falsely-claims-you-couldnt-buy-a-cannon-under-2nd-amendment/

      Everyone knows that this is a “Hitler-Size” lie but Old Joe keeps repeating it anyway. The Left thinks that we are all stupid idiots and, so, treats us that way.

      Back in the early 19th Century, private people could and did purchase cannon. Back then, in time of War, a private party could even purchase and arm their own warship, get a “Letter of Marque and Reprisal” (see https://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Letter+of+marque+and+reprisal ), and sail out and capture enemy vessels as “Prizes of War”.

      Indeed, you can still buy your own personal cannon today! Don’t believe it? Well, just check out this web site:

      https://www.dixiegunworks.com/index/page/category/category_id/541/category_chain/540,541/name/Cannons+%26+Cannon+Kits/

      Old demented Joe knows so little about firearms and self-defense, he thinks that the way to use a shotgun for personal protection is to step out on the back porch and fire off a couple of blasts into the Air! People who are knowledgeable about firearms still get laughs over that one.

      There is no point in even paying attention to the leftist gun-grabbers when they talk about the use and function of firearms. They, literally, KNOW NOTHING!

      • TN_MAN,

        Of course, you are correct, and you did a masterful job of proving the point that people could buy cannons in the past, and they can buy cannons in the present.

        The problem is, will most Americans believe Joe’s lie or will they believe the truth? I think most will believe the lie. Most people probably think it is unreasonable, and therefore illegal, to buy a cannon. Most people don’t know that machine guns are actually legal in America, once you go through all the paperwork, and lay down a lot of money for a gun that wastes ammo. {Even so, I am glad machine guns are legal, because I value freedom. In fact, if I could, I would make machine guns as easy to obtain as repeaters, just to spite the Left and make them mad}.

        At this time, lies are prevailing, and truth is failing. People make bad choices, that’s why.

      • Biden does not know in which State he is currently standing!

        but WE do. He is slouching as he stands in the perpetual State of Confusion.

  9. Stupid people calling for defunding of police again.

    Uvalde Showed Us Once Again That Cops Are Useless. When Will They Finally Be Defunded?
    Candace McDuffie
    Mon, May 30, 2022, 11:45 AM
    Law enforcement personnel stand outside Robb Elementary School following a shooting, May 24, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas.
    Law enforcement personnel stand outside Robb Elementary School following a shooting, May 24, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas.
    Every detail about how police delayed action from stopping a mass shooter in Uvalde, Texas on May 24 is more gut-wrenching than the last. When an 18-year-old terrorist stormed Robb Elementary School with a semi-automatic rifle last week, officers made it to the scene quickly. However, they failed to prevent innocent victims from losing their lives. The results of their immobility at Robb Elementary School? 21 people dead—19 children and 2 adults.

    Uvalde officers waited an hour before entering the school instead of immediately going after the gunman responsible for the attack. They ran inside to save their own children and brought them to safety. They also threatened and arrested parents who were desperate t0 do the same thing. In the time law enforcement sat idly outside, more than 100 rounds of ammunition were fired.
    During a news conference on May 27, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw admitted that the inaction from law enforcement cost those students and teachers their lives. “From the benefit of hindsight, where I’m sitting now, of course it was not the right decision,” McCraw stated. “It was the wrong decision, period. There’s no excuse for that.” The gunman was eventually killed more than an hour after he had entered the school.

    From Columbine to Parkland to Newtown to Uvalde. From Buffalo to Charleston to El Paso to San Bernardino. From Las Vegas to Orlando to Blacksburg to Sutherland Springs. Mass shootings have become a disturbingly cyclical part of American culture. The fact that police haven’t prevented any of these tragedies only reiterates what Black people have known for centuries: their only purpose is to harm the vulnerable and work against the promotion of public safety.

    The roots of modern day policing go back to days of slavery; the institution was established to capture, torment and kill Black people. Black folks and people of color have never looked to the cops to protect us, knowing that we are the target of their impunity. The racist and violent historical context of law enforcement is as prominent as it ever was. We are the ones disproportionately profiled, harassed, arrested, assaulted, incarcerated and murdered by cops—even when we call them in crisis.

    What happened in Uvalde is a result of a racist institution prioritizing oppressing marginalized groups over protecting them. Officers are known to be everything from KKK members to Proud Boys and use their positions to uphold white supremacy—which enables these senseless massacres. Uvalde officers didn’t do a damn thing to protect those babies. But the reality is they were, in fact, doing their job.

    It doesn’t matter how many people die. It doesn’t matter if they’re kids at school or worshippers at church or elderly people at grocery stores. Those who hold the most power in our society maintain it by participating in discriminatory systems driven by death. Police are—and will always be—one of the most vicious and carceral accomplices of this framework. When will they be defunded once and for all?

    • Carole,

      Actually, the writer may have a point, even though it sounds crazy. The fact is, if police do their job, and arrest criminals, but judges and lawyers let the crooks go, then what good are the police?

      This situation could turn to my advantage. If there are no police, then I am the police. If there are no prosecutors, then I am the prosecutor. If there are no juries, then I am the jury. If there are no judges, then I am the judge. If there are no executioners, then I am the executioners.

      Maybe I could even do a better job of administering justice than our current legal system is doing. Actually, it wouldn’t be hard to do a better job than they are doing, now, would it? Maybe the writer is on to something. Maybe the government is so inept that the people would be better doing ALL the functions of government.

      Interesting. I guess everything depends on who THE PEOPLE are. Good people will do good. Bad people will do bad.

      • “This Constitutioin was written for a moral and religious people. It will serve no other.”

        Let us keep in mind the entity that ws tasked with “the security of a free state” back in the beginning.

        “and what IS the militia? It is simply every able bodied man, armed and trained”.

  10. Our senile President just suggested banning 9mm handguns because they can “blow your lung out of your body.” The Canadian commie “Mr. Dress Up” just introduced handgun “freeze”, rifle confiscation & 5 round magazine limit legislation. They got away with all the destructive Covid orders and now THEY ARE coming for your guns now.

  11. Canda has gone full retard on handgun control.
    Reuters
    Canada’s Trudeau announces plan for national freeze on handguns

    Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks at a news conference about firearm-control legislation that was tabled today in the House of Commons in Ottawa
    Mon, May 30, 2022, 1:59 PM
    OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday his government was introducing new legislation to implement a “national freeze” on handgun ownership and prevent people from buying and selling handguns anywhere in the country.

    “The day this legislation goes into effect it will no longer be possible to buy, sell, transfer or import handguns in Canada,” Trudeau told reporters.

    If passed, the freeze on handguns is expected to come into force in the autumn. Canada’s public safety minister has tabled regulatory amendments in parliament to ensure it can be implemented swiftly, according to a ministry statement.

    The killing last week of 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Texas in the United States has fed concern about gun violence worldwide. Canada already has significantly stronger gun ownership restrictions than its neighbor to the south.

    – ADVERTISEMENT –

    Canada banned the sale and use of some 1,500 models of assault weapons, like the AR-15 rifle, two years ago. Speaking alongside Trudeau, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino confirmed the “imminent launch of the initial phase” of a program to buy back and compensate owners of such weapons.

    The new legislation, Bill C-21, also proposes taking away the firearms licenses of those involved in acts of domestic violence or criminal harassment, such as stalking.

    The legislation proposes stricter sentences for gun smugglers and traffickers, and aims to provide law enforcement with new tools like wiretapping to stop gun crime, Mendicino said.

    The government will also require long-gun magazines to be permanently altered so they can never hold more than five rounds, and will ban the sale and transfer of large capacity magazines.

    “Other than using firearms for sport shooting and hunting, there is no reason anyone in Canada should need guns in their everyday lives,” Trudeau told reporters at a briefing.

    Canada’s rate of firearm homicides is 0.5 per 100,000 people, compared with the U.S. rate of 4.12, according to a 2021 analysis by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

    (Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa and Anna Mehler Paperny in Toronto, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien and Richard Pullin)

    • If Trudeau keeps it up, parts pf Canada will secede and either form a separate state, or volunteer to join the part of the USA that looks after the Second Amendment. I have heard from a lot of conservative Canadians for the past 30 years or so that they were really getting fed up with overbearing Ottawa. Anyone who undervalues private ownership of handguns for personal security, including safety from animal predators, is not likely to have been living and working for long in the vast, rural Great White North. Furthermore, although Canada is a great nation with a lot of highly honorable people, it has its share of opportunistic criminals who have the typical thuggish disregard or any and all laws, except as to how advantage of the the law-abiding can be taken.

      • Strategic Steve,

        On YouTube, Canadian Prepper lives in Saskatchewan. He said Justin Trudeau, the current Prime Minister, has never been without the 24-hour protection of armed, government paid for, bodyguards. He is the son of Pierre Trudeau, who used to be Prime Minister. So, Justin has spent his whole life in a bubble, protected from crime.

    • Ol’ Just-In True Dough may THINK he will take up all the handguns.. “Mr. and Mrs. Canada, turn them all in” But I happen to have reiable information that there are MANY handguns “drifting about” in Canada thousands of handguns, the existence of which are not known of by the government. And if they know nothing of their existance, they CERTAINLY know naught of their whereabouts, nor their keepers.

  12. I remember when I was a kid, thinking – there’s no way dumb people could ever climb the ladder of success. Probably the most wrong thing I’ve ever thought in my life.

    A lot of people direct their anger at gun enthusiasts, yes. I’m afraid of the people who help stoke that anger, the ones in charge (of anything, really), who will do their damndest to disarm us.

  13. The Pretend Leaders claim to care about children. Probably just their own. They ask not why a person would kill children. They apparently don’t care and applaud the fact that 64+ million of unborn innocents have been butchered in their mothers’ wombs for convenience and yes profit.
    Even young kids get the message from hearing the Pro-Choice crowd and being permitted to engage in violent videos before they are 8 or 9 years of age. Our “leaders”, government and modern culture, have demonstrated to the young a total disregard for human life. Yet, most pulpits dare not speak these truths.

    • And shoot first when you find it appropriate, necessary, and justified. Many thanks to Mas for repeatedly showing us how to get out and stay out of trouble.

  16. More stupid gun control come up. Cute name save kids act.

    House Dems’ gun package to raise age limit for semi-automatic rifle purchases, ban ‘high capacity’ magazines

    Rep. Comer: No evidence gun control will result in less gun crime
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    0
    The House Judiciary Committee is set to hold an emergency meeting Thursday to pen an extensive gun control package.

    Democrats are currently pushing a series of eight bills aimed at suppressing gun ownership, referred to collectively as the “Protecting Our Kids Act,” Fox News confirmed.

    The bills contain proposals raising the minimum age for purchasing a semi-automatic weapon from 18 to 21, a ban on “high capacity magazines,” a registry for bump stocks, and more. The House package is expected to go nowhere in the Senate and is seen as more of a show vote, as a bipartisan group of senators tries to agree on a bill that could pass the Senate.

    The gun control package is a direct response to the massacre in Uvalde, Texas – the elementary school shooting last week that left 19 children and two teachers dead.

    The Uvalde shooting came immediately on the tails of a separate massacre in Buffalo, New York.

  17. I listened to three speeches from the NRA Convention, Former President Trump, Senator Cruz, and Beto O’Rourke.
    Trump and Cruz each offered half a dozen laws that would “do something” about situations like those in Uvalde.
    Cruz reminded the NRA that back in 2013 he authored Grassley-Cruz, a bill that would have first, mandated the Department of Justice to audit Federal agencies, making sure that criminal convictions and mental health issues were reported to NICS; second it would create a “Gun Crime Task Force” to prosecute felons who try to buy firearms; and third, would have provided $300,000,000 to strengthen school security.
    The bill had bipartisan support, and majorities in the House and Senate. But the Democratic leadership in the Senate filibustered it. As they have so many bills since then, unless they involved the progressive’s one solution, gun control.
    O’Rourke’s speech, from across the street, was about how the NRA’s bought representatives needed to be voted out of office to clear the way for effective solutions, but he would reach his hand across the street, “without a weapon,” to welcome NRA members who will join him and his followers. He offered no solutions, leaving unsaid the one solution everyone there knew he wants.
    President Trump’s and Senator Cruz’s YouTubes allow comments. O’Rourke’s comments are closed.

  18. New York getting stupid on gun control.

    New York raising age for purchasing semiautomatic weapons to 21 as part of gun law
    ALBANY — Following a pair of heinous tragedies, Gov. Hochul and state lawmakers announced a deal Tuesday on a package of bills that will tighten New York’s already strict gun laws and raise the minimum age to buy a semiautomatic rifle to 21.

    The agreement comes in the wake of mass shootings at a Texas elementary school and a Buffalo supermarket that left dozens dead and prompted renewed calls for change at the national level.

    Hochul said New York must step up as it remains unclear if Congress will take action.

    “New York already has some of the toughest gun laws in the country but clearly we need to make them even stronger,” the governor said in a statement. “New Yorkers deserve to feel safe in schools, in grocery stores, in movie theaters, in shopping malls, and on our streets — and we must do everything in our power to protect them.”

    New York Gov. Kathy Hochul shows a firearm during a news conference in Manhattan, New York on Wednesday, May 18, 2022.
    © Provided by New York Daily News
    New York Gov. Kathy Hochul shows a firearm during a news conference in Manhattan, New York on Wednesday, May 18, 2022.
    New York Gov. Kathy Hochul shows a firearm during a news conference in Manhattan, New York on Wednesday, May 18, 2022. (Darren McGee/)

    The package includes measures prohibiting the sale and purchase of body armor for anyone not in law enforcement and closing the “any other weapon” loophole that allows the sale of certain weapons that would otherwise be banned. Another bill could lead to the microstamping of ammunition.

    Among the biggest changes to New York’s gun laws will be a new requirement that anyone seeking to buy a semi-automatic rifle must be 21, up from 18, and must first obtain a gun license.

    Currently, licenses and permits are only needed for handguns.

    “Our nation has been brought to a moment of reckoning due to weapons of war that have been too easily accessed by those seeking to kill,” Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) said. “These weapons have made places in our communities like schools, grocery stores, houses of worship, and concerts, places of carnage.”

    New Yorkers attend a rally and vigil against gun violence at Union Square Park in Manhattan, New York on Thursday, May 26, 2022, after the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
    © Provided by New York Daily News
    New Yorkers attend a rally and vigil against gun violence at Union Square Park in Manhattan, New York on Thursday, May 26, 2022, after the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
    New Yorkers attend a rally and vigil against gun violence at Union Square Park in Manhattan, New York on Thursday, May 26, 2022, after the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas. (Gardiner Anderson/)

    Other bills will strengthen the state’s “red flag” law, which helps remove guns from those who may be a threat to themselves or others, and create a new “Task Force on Social Media and Violent Extremism” within the attorney general’s office to “study and investigate the role of social media companies in promoting and facilitating violent extremism and domestic terrorism online.”

    On May 14, 10 people, all Black, were killed while shopping at a Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo. Authorities allege that 18-year-old Payton Gendron gunned down his victims after posting racist screeds in online chatrooms and plotting the massacre for months.

    Last week, Salvador Ramos, also 18, slaughtered 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, before being killed by police. Ramos reportedly posted pictures of guns and made threatening comments online ahead of his rampage.

    New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) place flowers at a memorial as they pay respects to the victims of a mass shooting in Buffalo, N.Y. on Tuesday, May 17, 2022.
    © Provided by New York Daily News
    New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) place flowers at a memorial as they pay respects to the victims of a mass shooting in Buffalo, N.Y. on Tuesday, May 17, 2022.
    New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) place flowers at a memorial as they pay respects to the victims of a mass shooting in Buffalo, N.Y. on Tuesday, May 17, 2022. (Andrew Harnik/)

    Both suspected shooters used variations of semi-automatic rifles known as an AR-15s, which are legal in New York. The gun used in the Buffalo shooting was modified with a high-capacity magazine that allows 30 shots per round and purchased in Pennsylvania, according to police.

    “Just 10 days separated the mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde that took the lives of 31 people. Nowhere else in the world is this happening,” said Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx). “We are in desperate need of a conversation about guns, but we are also in desperate need of action.

    “I hope that one day we’ll see the end to the horrific gun violence we see in this country. But until then, I will keep fighting,” he added.

    Lawmakers are expected to vote on the package before the scheduled end of the legislative session on Thursday.

    Other bills slated for approval will eliminate the grandfathering of large capacity ammunition feeding devices lawfully possessed prior to the enactment of the Safe Act in 2013 or manufactured prior to 1994. Under the new laws, police will have to report seized or recovered guns to the criminal gun clearinghouse and share information with federal authorities as well as test-fire seized or recovered guns for national integrated Ballistic Information Network.

    The State Police will also be required to conduct inspections of gun dealers every three years.

  19. No matter how goofy other people talk and act, especially politicians and talking heads, controlling one’s emotions and doing what one SHOULD DO to set a good example is most important. Self control always accompanies any real progress with others. Cancel culture leads nowhere but dead ends.

    • Strategic Steve,

      Those of us on the Right have taken the high road, except for some of us who got a little too rambunctious on one day, January 6th, 2021.

      I’m actually amazed that Obama was our President for 8 years, and did not get assassinated. If he was elected President in the 1960s, he would have been assassinated. This fact alone proves that whites in America are not racist at this time.

      The southern border has been wide open to anyone for over a year now. How come Patriots are not going down there and stopping the flow of illegal democrats? They are exercising self control, like you say they should.

      During the George Floyd riots was the perfect time for Patriots to form a militia, and bring vigilante law and order to America’s cities. But very few of us tried to do that. We exercised self control.

      The 2020 election was stolen. Donald Trump should rightly be in his second term. Well, the rambunctious Patriots had a rally on January 6th, 2021. The Left claims it was an insurrection, BUT OUR SIDE DIDN’T BRING ONE GUN. If someone was carrying concealed, he or she never unholstered it. So, we exercise self control while a usurper is in the White House, calling himself the President of the USA.

      We are exercising self control, but are we winning, or losing?

  21. Just when think thing get sillier . The first lawsuit file come out New York now been file against Glock.

    Victim of New York City subway shooting sues gun maker Glock
    Associated Press – Yesterday 5:25 PM

    ASSOCIATED PRESS
    NEW YORK — A woman wounded in last month’s mass shooting on a New York City subway filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the maker of the handgun allegedly used in the attack and its parent company, accusing the firearm manufacturer of “reckless disregard for human life.”

    Related video: Watch: New York City Subway Shooting Suspect Taken Into Custody

    Watch: New York City Subway Shooting Suspect Taken Into Custody
    Unmute

    Authorities say a 9mm Glock semiautomatic handgun was used in the attack.
    In her lawsuit, filed in federal court in Brooklyn, Ilene Steur said Glock has “endangered the public health and safety” with the marketing, distribution and sales of its guns.

    An email seeking comment was sent to Glock.

    Steur was one of 10 people shot and wounded on April 12 when a gunman fired dozens of bullets in a train full of morning commuters. The man charged in the attack, Frank James, has pleaded not guilty to terrorism and other counts.

    In the lawsuit, Glock is accused of “marketing that emphasizes firearm characteristics such as their high capacity and ease of concealment, that appeal to prospective purchasers with criminal intent.”

    The lawsuit was filed as the nation reels from last week’s massacre of 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

    In February, the families of nine victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting reached a $73 million settlement in a lawsuit against Remington, the maker of the rifle used in that attack.

    The families said the company should have never sold such a dangerous weapon to the public. They said their focus was on preventing future mass shootings by forcing gun companies to be more responsible with their products and how they market them.

    Gun rights groups said the settlement would likely have little effect on rifle sales and gun makers, who continue to be shielded from liability in most cases under federal law. But some experts said it may prompt insurance companies to pressure gun makers into making some changes.

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