New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) wants to parlay our nation’s heightened sexual assault atmosphere into new opportunities for firearm confiscation.
He is doing this by seeking changes in state law that will make various misdemeanor convictions sufficient grounds for forfeiture of Second Amendment rights.
According to TIME, Cuomo wants misdemeanor convictions of domestic abuse to be treated on a par with felony convictions. New York law currently requires that firearms be surrendered by those convicted of a felony in this category of crime and Cuomo wants to expand that to include those convicted of misdemeanors as well.
Cuomo said, “This year will be remembered as the year of reckoning, when both the tragedy of mass shootings and cultural and institutional harassment of women became impossible to ignore.”
In addition to expanding confiscatory laws to those convicted of misdemeanors, Cuomo also wants to expand the scope of confiscatory orders. The orders currently apply to handguns but he wants those expanded to include rifles and shotguns and as well.
TIME reports, “Cuomo’s announcement comes barely a month after a shooter opened fire on his mother-in-law’s Texas church, killing 26 people and injuring others, after a long history of domestic violence.” This omits the fact that the Texas shooter was able acquire his gun because of an Air Force reporting error, whereby the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) was not alerted to the Texas shooter’s domestic violence conviction. Had that conviction been reported he would not have been able to pass a NICS check.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.
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