That “public safety” vs. “do something” dilemma

| January 18, 2013

In New York, it seems that legacy governor Cuomo rushed his emotional knee-jerk gun ban through the legislature too fast because they didn’t exempt large capacity magazines for the police officers, and now he has to clarify the ill-considered bill, according to Fox News;

“Police officers possessing ammunition clip with more than seven bullets are not in violation of this law and they never will be, period,” Cuomo spokesman Matthew Wing said.

While the new law did not include an explicit exemption for police, the old law which capped the number of rounds in a magazine at 10 bullets did. Technically, the new law likely would not override that exemption.

But some lawmakers were concerned there could be confusion. Graf said if the governor’s office does not craft an amendment explicitly exempting officers, he will.

“If (Cuomo) didn’t do this the way he did, he wouldn’t be so embarrassed today,” said Graf, complaining that lawmakers had very little time to read and digest the bill before it was muscled through the legislature and signed into law.

Personally, I think the NYPD needs lower capacity magazines – remember the gun man at the Empire State Building who had no one to gun down because all of the pedestrians within range had been gun downed by the police?

Several miles north of Albany, near Burlington, Vermont a local range operator has disinvited the city’s police from usage of his private range because of the new legislation passed in Burlington, says USAToday;

The club’s executive board “can no longer support the City of Burlington with such a prejudice against our club and its members, and has voted to suspend the City’s use of our range for its law enforcement. This action is effective immediately,” Boivin wrote in the letter, dated Tuesday. It was provided Wednesday to The Burlington Free Press.

“We hope that the council reconsiders its actions and redirects its efforts towards perpetrators of violent crimes and security issues,” Boivin wrote.

The city’s exclusion from the range likely would affect how and when officers train with firearms, Burlington Police Chief Michael Schirling told the Free Press on Wednesday night.

“Training facilities are limited in the area,” Schirling said. “It’s unfortunate that a polarized discussion of this nature has this kind of impact.”

Yeah, it’s unfortunate that private citizens aren’t rolling over and just doing what is being dictated to them. We talked about the city council when they decided to draft a gun ban for the city while most of the citizens who showed up for the meeting opposed the new legislation. The council plowed ahead anyway, and now they find out that there’s a price to pay for their intransigence.

Category: Guns

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Hondo

What, Jonn – you actually expect liberal-controlled legislatures to read and think about laws before they pass them? I thought they operated on the “pay no attention to the man behind that screen” principle.

2/17 Air Cav

VT: The range owner in the Burlington story has some mega-sized ones. I would guess that the local gendarme just might be measuring the distance he parks his vehicle from the curb now. If they do, or he begins getting tickets and has a clean or relatively clean driving record, a retribution case will be easy.

NY: “[R]emember the gun man at the Empire State Building who had no one to gun down because all of the pedestrians within range had been gun downed by the police?” That is a damn funny line.

Just Plain Jason

WE GOTTA DO SOMETHING!!! The Pats are in the playoff again! I am thinking a ban on all old ass hoodies on NFL sidelines are in order. Sorry guys too much for today.

Old Trooper

Another “the law is for thee, not for me” moment, eh?

pete

just remember,,even the libtards will start leaving NY because of this dillweed mayor! they will start moving into our states like cockroaches!

Ex-PH2

You know, when cows panic and stampede, they run over anything and everything that gets in the way because they go blind with panic — can’t see where they’re going. They frequently end up with broken body parts. And they almost always spook at the sound of gunfire.

Yeehaaa!

FatCircles0311

Can’t we implement a multiple choice test regarding the specifics of bills and if they don’t get a at least a D score their vote is negated because they obviously don’t know what they voted for?

Just an Old Dog

I guess they better close down all the National Guard Armories You cant have irresponsible citizens carrying high capacity magazines in training, since we all know they are not responsible enough to carry them the other 28 days of the month off duty.

streetsweeper

That right there is some funny shit, don’t care who ya are. “Personally, I think the NYPD needs lower capacity magazines – remember the gun man at the Empire State Building who had no one to gun down because all of the pedestrians within range had been gun downed by the police?”. We have our state senator down here (my state senator) trying to push the exact same legislation through the Gold Dome as I type this.

Ex-PH2

I, personally, would love to see the poh-lease made to use restricted-load magazines, so that when they run into some Wankers with a high-capacity magazine and a boatload of drug money, they’re all outgunned.

I’m just saying.

PintoNag

@10 As aggravating as the police can be, I would never want to see them outgunned by shitbags. Too many cops in my family to want to ever see dead cops.

Ex-PH2

Oh, not dead cops, PN. That’s not what I meant. Just less arrogant. Chicago has left me soured on them.

Spade

@11, I’d rather not see citizens outgunned by shitbags either.

Goose, gander, etc.

B Woodman

Bwhahahahahha
Hoisted by their own petard. Love it.
The Immutable Law of Unintended Consequences strikes again!!

Old Trooper

@10: Um; didn’t you get the news? The bad guys are only going to have 7 round magazines (it’s the law!!), so the cops won’t be outgunned. Geesh, you should have gotten that memo.

Ex-PH2

OT, yeah, but see, that only appplies to NY cops, not to shitbag Chicago cops who think they can beat the living daylights out of female bartenders one-fourth their size.

SFC Holland

Some gang banger called into Hannity’s show yesterday. He said he was from the 18th street gang and that all the vatos were laughing their asses off at the government. The only thing any of this legislation does is restrict law abiding citizens. Criminals do not, and have never, respected laws or abided by them. All of this is a farce meant to take away rights from citizens. We don’t have a 2nd ammendment for hunting, or sport. It was for the people to protect themselves, to be able to form a militia to overthrow a tyrranical government, which is what the founders had just accomplished. Low information voters who have no morals did this to us.

OWB

Got a suggestion for the “we gotta do something right now” crowd – take a large dose of your drug of choice and confine yourselves to a small room. Your tantrums are beyond tedious and our patience with your lunacy has expired.

Grow up, all you whining, spoiled children!

obsidian

Actually a public restricted to seven rounds means the Police are safer according to the hoplophobes so why can’t the Police be restricted to seven shots also?
I mean if the population is disarmed there will be no reason for the Police to be armed at all, because gun violence will disappear like smoke in the wind or so these idiots say.

Ex-PH2

The difference between 10 rounds and 7 rounds is the number of times a shooter has to stop and reload. That’s it.

I don’t understand why Cuomo, who has a Remington of his very own, got his little self into such a freak-out about this. He’s a fine example of hypocrisy at work.

Anyway, I took my beloved aging Escape for its daily ’round-the-block spin, listening to PBR, and my timing is incredible. There was, in fact, a discussion on gun control going on and when I got home, I dug into the broadcast and also the blog by Sam Harris, who makes some excellent points on guns and people and practical gun attitudes.

To quote him: “I believe that good, trustworthy, and well-trained people should have guns.” Read the blog, and view the two videos, also read his viewpoint link on self-defense.

http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/the-riddle-of-the-gun

Also, click on this link: http://www.cbc.ca/day6/
and scroll down to the part about “Sam Harris and The Riddle of the Gun” and click on the icon for the audio (radio broadcast). It’s worth taking your time for a listen.

Ex-PH2

Thought you all might appreciate this, if you haven’t seen it.

http://news.msn.com/us/photos-of-man-with-rifle-in-utah-store-go-viral

Anonymous

@16: Ex-PH2: You do know I was being sarcastic; right?

Old Trooper

#22 was me……….

Ex-PH2

@OT, yes, I figured that, and so was I.

kp32

A solution that can work:

kp32

@25- That link no longer works… this one does:

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[…] ignored the threat and passed a bill to limit magazines to 15-rounds – by three votes. We talked about the gun range owner near Burlington, Vermont who forbade use of his privately-owned range by Burlington police when the […]