Cuomo to Propose Broader Ban on Assault Weapons

[NeoConsSuck]

Source: NY Times

ALBANY — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, pushing New York to become the first state to enact major new gun laws in the wake of the massacre in Newtown, Conn., plans on Wednesday to propose one of the country’s most restrictive bans on assault weapons.

New York is one of seven states that already ban at least some assault weapons. But Mr. Cuomo has described the existing law as having “more holes than Swiss cheese,” and he wants to broaden the number of guns and magazines covered by the law while also making it harder for gun makers to tweak their products to get around the ban.

Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, will outline his proposal in his State of the State address, but even before he speaks, he has incited anxiety among gun owners by acknowledging in a radio interview that “confiscation could be an option” for assault weapons owned by New Yorkers. Since that interview, Mr. Cuomo has not mentioned the idea, and his aides have acknowledged that it would be impractical. But gun rights groups have seized on the comment, even posting a petition on the Web site of the White House declaring, “We do not live in Nazi Germany” and asking the Obama administration to block any effort at confiscation by Mr. Cuomo.

Since the shootings in Newtown, Mr. Cuomo has been trying to negotiate an agreement on gun laws with legislative leaders in Albany — he even contemplated calling them back into special session last month — and the talks continued into the night Tuesday, as the governor sought to reach an agreement before his speech. According to people briefed on the talks, the governor is considering not only rewriting the state’s assault weapons ban, but also proposing more expansive use of mental health records in background checks of gun buyers, lower limits on the capacity of magazines sold legally in New York and a new requirement that gun permits be subject to periodic renewal.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/09/nyregion/cuomo-to-propose-more-expansive-ban-on-assault-weapons.html

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I'm liking this guy more and more. So glad I live in NY.

[CreekDog]

1. Probably the Republicans he endorsed for State Senate will shoot his proposal down

[Agschmid]

2. Me too n/t

[graham4anything]

3. Andrew? Haven't heard from him since before Sandy.Has he been away?Jealous of Mike's air time?

[bossy22]

4. What is the obsession with tracking ammunition purchases?

it already has been tried, from 1968-1986 and it was found to be of no use. I know what their reasoning is, that they believe they can track behavior and hopefully be able to identify a correlation between an amount purchased and the likelihood of a crime being committed. the fact is that their really isn't any difference. It is like trying to track drunk drivers by requiring reporting of beer sales. Mass shooters usually don't by ammunition in amounts that would be an outlier. Some people by a 50 rounds of ammunition at a time, others buy 5,000. It really depends on the person. That person that is buying 5,000 rounds- are they likely to be planning a rampage- probably not. 5,000 rounds of 50 BMG would be abnormal, but 5,000 rounds of .22lr would not (in fact, 5,000 rounds of 22 lr in boxes would fir into a small carry on sized suitcase- to give you an idea of how unimpressive it would like). Some shooters like to buy in bulk- lower prices and they know thye only have to go to the gun shop or order a few times a year. Others don't do alot of shooting so buy only when they decide to go- and only the amount they expect to use that one time.

It's a gigantic waste of time. You are going to waste Law enforcement resources going over data which really shows no discernable pattern.

Also, the only way to make it concievably work would be to require each box/bullet to have its own serial number and have that number registered to that person. But that is unrealistic. What happens if i meet up with my friends to go shooting and we decide to put all the ammo boxes into one container so we don't have to bring as much stuff? What happens if we have the same exact type of ammo from the same manufacturer (which is very common)? What happens if we hit a bump and stuff gets mixed up? Am i supposed to spend a half hour going through each bullet to seperate mine from theirs? How am I supposed to remember all of that? What if I wrote it down and made a mistake, misread a number? Do i go to jail?

I hope you see how silly and convoluted it would get. You would end up with innocent people being arrested and put in jail- whose only crime was that they made the very common human mistake of misreading numbers.

[davepc]

5. Where's he going to get the billion dollars + it'll take to confiscate?

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/ny_in_jam_forget_rifle_buyback_tiTyUjCeA5bNtmL6jpDeCO

The number of such military-style weapons in the state — including the New York-made Bushmaster used in the Sandy Hook massacre — is at least 1 million, far higher than even some local criminal-justice experts realize, gun-industry experts say.

And given that the weapons are worth $1,000 or more apiece, a buyback would cost the state at least $1 billion, since even Cuomo administration officials concede that their owners would have to be compensated financially.

“The cost of confiscation would make it impracticable, if there’s anything approaching a million of them, putting aside the other issues that would be involved,’’ said one Cuomo administration source.

New York is broke and a billion dollars is a lot of money.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

6. 1%er Bloomie will tell him to just raise the taxes on soft drinks and use his private army

[Undismayed]

7. They'll think about that later.

Thinking's no fun. It's easier to just act on emotion.

[nlkennedy]

8. Cuomo is unapologetic..

By today's standards he is quite progressive..

Bragged about marriage equality, wanted to reduce punishments for marijuana possesion, plans big new infrastructure in wake of hurricane Sandy...and now he's not afraid to go after assault weapons.

He brilliantly stays out of the national limelight for the most part...

If Hilary doesn't do it...meet the new boss.