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Mike Groll / AP
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo delivers his third State of the State address at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center on Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013, in Albany, N.Y. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed “the toughest assault weapons ban in the nation” in his State of the State address Wednesday afternoon – a response to the mass shootings in Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn., and the shooting deaths of firefighters in upstate New York.
“We must stop the madness,” Cuomo said.
“This is not about taking away peoples’ guns,” said Cuomo, adding that he’s gone hunting and owns a shotgun. “It is about ending the unnecessary risk of high-capacity assault rifles.”
Cuomo previously described New York’s assault weapons regulations as having “more holes than Swiss cheese.”
The governor proposed a seven-point plan that includes the elimination of all high-capacity magazines, regardless of the date of manufacture. New York law currently prohibits magazines that hold more than ten rounds, but excludes magazines made prior to 1994.
Cuomo also proposed background checks for all gun sales between private parties, as well as stricter penalties for the illegal purchase of weapons and measures to ensure that guns stay out of the hands of mentally ill individuals.
Even before the governor spoke, the topic stirred debate in New York, which is one of seven states that currently restrict the purchase and possession of assault weapons. The others are California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Maryland according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which supports gun control measures.
“New York’s assault weapons ban is, as he noted, riddled with loopholes, and it’s important to approach that with a fresh eye,” said Benjamin Van Houten, a managing attorney at the Law Center. “Currently California has the strongest state assault weapons ban, but I’m really encouraged by what the governor was saying today.”
Speculation is swirling around Vice President Biden's comments Wednesday that the president will take executive action to stem gun violence. NBC's Kristen Welker reports.
After Cuomo told a radio interviewer in December that “confiscation could be an option,” gun rights activists posted a petition to the White House’s web site calling any legislation restricting the sale and ownership of semi-automatic firearms “a clear violation of our rights as a free people.” The petition had 7,973 signatures as of late Wednesday morning.
Cuomo's aides have reportedly said the confiscation idea won't work, and he hasn't mentioned it since the radio interview.
Cuomo’s speech comes as lawmakers in other states and at the federal level direct more attention to the issue of gun control.
In Washington, Vice President Biden held the first in a series of gatherings at the White House aimed at trying to create a consensus on what to do about gun violence.
“The president is going to act,” Biden said while meeting with gun control proponents at the White House. “There are executive orders, executive action that can be taken.”
In Colorado, which is still reeling from the movie theater shooting that left 12 dead, Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, has urged legislators to take up the issue of gun control. The Associated Press reported that gun rights advocates planned a rally outside the state Capitol Wednesday, a day ahead of Hickenlooper’s own State of the State address.
An FBI review of all 2011 homicides for which data was available found that 67.8 percent of them involved firearms – 72.5 percent of which were handguns.
On Monday, more than one hundred New York state legislators called for new laws that would cut down on gun violence. Their proposed package calls for universal background checks on all gun sales, a more stringent ban on assault weapons, and a ban on the sale and possession of magazines that hold more than ten rounds of ammunition.
Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos announced his own gun proposal on Saturday, suggesting mandatory sentences for possession of an illegal weapon and increased penalties for carrying a firearm in certain areas, like on school grounds.
“No new package of gun safety laws can be truly effective without including provisions that go after illegal guns and punish the people who use them against others,” Skelos said in a press release.
A spokesman for the governor knocked down Skelos’ proposal because it did not call for an outright ban on assault weapons.
“Any gun policy that doesn’t ban assault weapons ignores the reality of gun violence and insults the common sense of New Yorkers,” spokesman Josh Vlasto said.
Cuomo's efforts may be aided by the fact he is riding a wave of popularity. A Siena College poll conducted in November found that Cuomo is viewed favorably by 72 percent of New Yorkers.
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I don't own an assault weapon but all this talk of banning makes me want to run out and get one. People will always want and find ways to get what they can't have. Prohibition anyone? Besides, criminals aren't law abiding anyway so more laws won't do jack sh!t.
"I don't own an assault weapon but all this talk of banning makes me want to run out and get one. People will always want and find ways to get what they can't have."
If you want the ability to defend yourself ..best get one.
Personally, I prefer shotguns but the capacity is limited. Zombies though, are slow and don't stand a chance :)
Funny, I may own 100% state-legal versions of "assault weapons," for the sole protection of myself, my family and my property, my community, and ultimately my freedom... but have never been hunting, and hearing all these politicians talking about their stupid yuppie duck shotguns makes me never want to.
Watch an increase in these militia groups,everyone of these types has serious mental problems. Crazed Rambos armed to the teeth,actually most have no teeth and poor hygiene!
Good firearms are f#@king expensive and thus most are in the hands of successful and responsible members of society. Go check out the cost of a .308 SOCOM with scope and get back to me.
We might not see an increase in militias. I think those that are serious have already formed up, and when not training, are sitting quietly just watching. I'll bet the county Sheriffs know what's going on too. This nation is loaded with veterans also.
The clutchers are getting more paranoid than usual.
Ze Fuehrer and his Brown Shirts are on the move , time to reform the Minute Men.
ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ
Hey gun nuts if you don't like America leave. The sanity of the American public would increase dramatically if you do! You people are suffer from extreme paranoia.
It is precisely because we do love our country that we oppose such sanctions...
Freedom
TONYWARVET move to Japan - exactly if you don't like America leave.
@"tonywarvet", I sincerly hope that you have earned that moniker by actually serving in the military in an active combat zone. If not, you're not worth listening to.
More like YOU should GTFO.
Maybe we should. Then whoever wants to take over this expectent society, can, and then they can rule over you and you can see how good you had it.
how about this, tough guy, if you don't like the constitution, you should be the one to leave?
Didn't you take an oath to defend the constitution? haha
Hey anti-gun nut! I'm sure some third world Dictator led country will welcome you. Leave.
@TONYWARVET, Let's not forget we live in a Constitutional Republic, not a democracy.
Well, Mr Governor, how about enforcing the already silly laws you have on the books? When I moved back to NY (God help me) from MI to look after my parents, I had to hack up my Bushmaster to make it compliant with NY's "Assault weapons" ban. I took off my flash hider, welded on a muzzle brake, pinned my stock, removed my bayo lug and ditched all my mags over 10 rounds. My weapon was fully compliant before it ever entered the state.
Then I arrive here and begin going out to the ranges to discover that my Bushmaster might very well be the ONLY compliant one here! I see them out there all the time with all the "Banned" attachments, and with 30 round plastic Magpuls (None of which was manufactured before 1994). When in my frustration I ask LEO's about this I usually get the same answer; "We really don't have time to worry about that stuff," or "We don't really pay attention to that."
Now don't get me wrong, NY's rules on weapons are idiotic and entirely ineffective, and as a person with more than two working brain cells I know this, but I obeyed them because they are in place. Just as there are many laws in place regarding management of purchases, background checks, etc, that are not properly enforced even here in this "Bastion of civility." The powers that be won't make an effort to enforce existing laws when there is low hanging political fruit to go after and headlines to be made.
So, MR. Genius Governor, until you do YOUR job as "Executive" and show that you at least have the ability to enforce your already active laws, you don't get the privilege of asking more of me. I already do my part.
And we have lost 3 congressional seats since the last 2 censuses. People are fed up with NYS and all of it,s excuses. Property/school taxes where I live are $40 per $1,000 of assesed value.
First: A comment from someone who is physically challenged:
"You know what? No. I can't fire a Glock, I have bad wrists from carpal tunnel syndrome. And the recoil and weight of a 12-gauge makes it unmanageable for my feeble frame. But an AR15 is light and has a low recoil, and the shoulder stock eases the wrist issue. It works perfectly for me.
See, you can talk off the top of your head, but you can't imagine every situation. Which is why you have no right to restrict what others choose to own."
http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/50208495#50208495
June 29, 2010
"Investigators: 15-year-old son of deputy shoots burglary suspect........The 15-year-old boy and his 12-year-old sister had been home alone in the Mount Royal Village subdivision when around 2:30 p.m. a pair of burglars tried the front and back doors, then broke a back window. The teenager grabbed his father's ASSAULT RIFLE and knew what to do with it. "We don't try to hide things from our children in law enforcement," Lt. Jeffrey Stauber said. "That young boy was protecting his sister. He was in fear for his life and her life." ........The home invaders fled, leaving a trail of blood."
http://www.khou.com/news/crime/Burglary-suspect-shot-by-15-year-old-son-of-deputy-97430719.html
This type of rifle is especially good for those who are physically challenged. Why? the low recoil and accuracy.
“If I could of gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an outright ban picking up everyone one of them. Mr. Mrs. America turn them all in. I would of done it. I could not do that. The votes were not here. COMPARE THE ABOVE STATEMENT TO ANY RECENT STATEMENTS LIKE THE ONE's IN THE VIDEO.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3DKuN2ey80
2009
2011
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr60/nvsr60_03.pdf
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr61/nvsr61_06.pdf
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-11
The true agenda is in FACT Confiscation of firearms not regulation.
Please all you gun enthusiast do us a favor and take all your guns into to your bunkers and wait for the government to come and take your guns away. Make sure you have enough food for many decades.
Jeberish, the biggest problem is the health care system PERIOD!
The whole enchilada from costs to availability - Accessibility.
Heck we can't even battle the flu
Everyone talks about "assault weapons", but if you'll notice, nobody will define "assault weapons" as the fully automatic weapons. Why? Because they first wish to ban "assault weapons", and then gradually define them to include anything they wish. Whether this is done by congressional vote, popular vote or "executive order" remains to be seen, but that appears to be the "plan".
Hold on to your arse's NRA/300 round Wingnuts, your in for a bumpy ride. :)
I would rather have untidy truth, than convenient lies. Bring it.
That is what Clinton said. Then the Democrats were chases out of Congress and old Bill found himself with impeachment proceedings to deal with.
Doubtful. The idiocy in Washington couldn't pour piss out of a boot, much less pass any meaninful legislation. However, it would appear that your paramour is considering "executive order" to circumvent Congress. Enjoy the fruits of my labor, tool.
WTF was THAT about????? I am refering to J Wrights thing about 300 something or other
Let's look at it this way, I am a hunter. I hunt nearly everything that runs, flies, or swims. When I am hunting and get a deer the thing that I tell my friends is that I got the deer. The gun is a very mechanical device and does exactly what it is told to.
I have strong feelings about each gun that I own. But I also ensure that ALL my guns are locked in an area that you are not going to get to them with out a combination.
If we ban the the sale of assault weapons all that we are doing is taking them away from the people that are using them for recreation purposes. Shooting them in 3 gun compititions, shooting at targets in the range, or using them for varmint hunting. The people that want to use these guns for the wrong reason will still get their hands on them and will use them how they want to. Just like a person that feels he needs to shoot up a school will break down door to do so. What we need to do is educate the owners how to store these weapons, make sure there are no loop-holes in the background checks and make sure that there is help for the people that need the help.
Dont punish the law abiding citizens for what the people that won't stop doing these very crude, very unhuman acts. My heart goes out to the victims and their families of those but do not punish the people that enjoy these amazing devices legally.
That is a load of crap. The only reason why gun enthusiast want Assault style weapons is paranoia. They are afraid of a posible tyranical government. They want to be almost as armed as the government. And I know for a fact that many of gun enthusiast keep many illegal guns that they aquire through loop holes in our gun laws. These are all supposedly law abiding citizens.
If you have such information why don't you turn these people in that have illegal weapons? Maybe you're part of the problem, or just maybe you don't have a clue what you are talking about.
no jvalen, that's them explaining the 2nd amendment to you. Equipping the populace to resist a government that goes the way of hitler or assad is one of the most oft-forgotten reasons we have that right.
Most us want a dependable, easy to use, reliable, tested, and scary as fk looking weapon to use just in case we have to deal with break ins, home invasions, looters... you name it. You earn enough to have property and a family some day, you'll understand. Unless you live in a gated community or have armed guards, in which case, mind your own dang business.
Well said tbbullseye! I fully agree.
Jvalen13, you have no idea what you're talking about. I have quite a few personal friends that are "gun enthusiast's" and none of them have illegal weapons. In fact I don't know anyone who does.
When I joined the military almost 17yrs ago and got to fire an M-16 (full auto capable) "assault rifle" in basic training and collected the marksman ribbon, I told myself that I'd get one like it someday. Well 15 years later I was financially able to do that and picked up a brand new semi-auto Colt SP6940 rifle. There was no paranoia involved with my purchase, and I never have or will label it as an assault-anything weapon. So I suppose you're against a Mini 14 or a 10/22 also since those are semi-auto???
Crawl back under your keyboard.
It's a pretty straightforward process to amend the Constitution, if you have the voters behind it. So why is no one calling for that? Maybe they don't think the people really want it?
Why did they put guns immediately after free speech, and even before your rights to property, search & seizure, etc? Hmmm ...
By law, it's not even an assault weapon.
"The term 'assault weapon,' as used by the media, is a media invention," said Robert Crook, executive director of the Coalition of Connecticut Sportsmen. "These are semi-automatic firearms that have military cosmetic characteristics. They look like our military firearms, but they're not."
Connecticut has an assault-weapons ban, modeled after a federal law that was enacted in 1994 before expiring a decade later. But it takes more than a dark fiberglass body and a menacing shape to fall under the ban.
Hand guns account for over 75% of the murders... were those ASSAULT PISTOLS!!!!!!!
If 75% of the deaths were handgun related why are people going nuts over Semi Auto rifles...
Well Guess I need to buy a few more high capacity magazines...before they are illegal and go up too much in price
Hillary/Andrew in 2016. You have been warned !
Cuomo is a pompous ass. In 2007 he helped put 2/3's of appraisers out of business and cut their income by about 2/3s. In a conflict of interest (he had ownership interest in these type of companies) he required appraisals be ordered through Appraisal Management Companies. Yet it was the Appraisal Management Companies that caused the biggest problems with appraisals especially with new homes. Banks own Appraisal Management Companies...What a joke. Anyway he caused the price of appraisals to jump from about $350 to $600+ per appraisal, while compensation to appraisers dropped by 2/3's to about $130-$160 per apparaisal. Before Cuomo stepped in very, very few appraisers could become rich off of the amount of work required and return of fees in the appraisal business (Except for owners of Appraisal Management Companies). So consumers "benefit" because now they have to pay more for an appraisal.
No real surprise, Cuomo has been a joke since the 80's.
And a real bad one to NYS!
Well it's no wonder he wants to ban hi-cap semiautos. So he can go full on facsist on his electorate.
It's going crazy over on the Washington post now.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/01/09/biden-vows-white-house-action-on-gun-control/#comments
Please explain to me how to regulate sales between "private parties"?
Who in their right mind would disclose this in the first place.
It does not work. CT passes that law years ago. I have not known one person that went to a FFL dealer to pay them $100 to transfer the gun they are selling.
"“The president is going to act,” - Joe Biden
Yep, that's the problem Joe, he's going to act. Not act responsibly, not act smartly, not act intelligently, he's just going to 'act'. He's going to make a knee jerk reaction, and try to pass some new laws, and limit law abiding citizens access to guns. Great, what problem will it solve? No law that is being proposed would have stopped what happened at Newton. So the kid carries more clips into the school. He has just as many rounds. So what??
Typical politicians, can't solve the real problem, so we'll pass laws that make our base feel good.
Change. The people are getting what they voted for.
and insults the common sense of New Yorkers,” spokesman Josh Vlasto said.
They vote for obama, higher taxes and welfare bums but you are worried their common sense might be offended?
Lmao! "Common sense" hasn't been seen in that area since the late 1700's!
I wonder how many Old School Cops are going to turn a blind eye to Cuomo's rant?
An ar15 round would cleanly pass through any soft material with its projected 3000fps...no validity in the argument it is built to embed in it.....last time I checked criminals BREAK THE LAW....how hard is that to understand? Sheep will be herded into neat little groups and those too scared to realize they are being herded for a reason will end up in one place......read into it what you want, your going to anyway.
Imposing a fine on people that are to ignorant to educate themselves on the true cause of the violence should be on the agenda. How about passing legislation to balance a budget instead of potentially making millions of LAW ABIDING citizens into criminals, or is that the plan? More felons=more $$ in for the fat cats to get fatter while you and I struggle to manage a LIVING wage.
Just like the Volstead Act!
The fiction this article, and Gov. Cuomo, continue to perpetuate, is that "assault weapons" exist as a distinct and objective class outside of the legal definition of the term "assault weapon." That simply is not the case. It is a category of arms that exists because the law says it exists. The current "assault weapon" ban in NY (the "swiss cheese" one) mirrors the old federal ban, saying it's a semiautomatic rifle capable of accepting detachable magazines with any two of the following (largely cosmetic) features:
1)pistol grip
2)bayonet lugs
3)flash suppressor or threaded barrel to accept a flash suppressor
4)grenade launcher
5)collapsible stock.
Not a single one of those features made a difference to Lanza or Holmes when they used their AR-15s. Even if Cuomo redefined "assault weapon" to be any semiautomatic rifle with a detachable magazine with one of those features, Lanza and Holmes both would have been capable of legally obtaining rifles that did exactly what they did in their crimes. What Cuomo is trying to ban is guns that look scary. That's it. Nothing more, and fuctionally a lot less.
As far as targetting the mentally ill, that's an even scarier infringement of our civil rights. Psychiatrists have horrible track record when it comes to predicting future violence, but Cuomo would seek to empower them to strip people of their civil liberties and embroil them in expensive court battles because they MIGHT commit a future crime of some sort. There are mechanisms in place to allow psychiatrists to report potentially dangerous patients in the status quo, but they have to clear a pretty high standard of likelihood to do it. What Cuomo proposes would vitiate doctor/patient privilege, allowing or compelling doctors to divulge intimate details of a patient's therapy sessions on ever-more remote possibilities of violence.
That destruction of the doctor/patient privilege will be worse for all involved in this country. Fearing reporting from their doctors if they mention anything to them that is vaguely in the realm of troubling, mental health patients cease to be honest, or cease treatment altogether, either way getting LESS treatment as a result, enhancing the possibility of violent outbursts.
This response is a disaster in the making stemming from a desire to sooth the simple who "demand a plan" but are not complex enough to care about the details of the plan. Cuomo wants to be able to say he "did something" no matter how ill-conceived it is.
As long as it's only New York. I wouldn't give a gun to a New Yorker anyway.
Andrew/Hillary are going to run in 2016. It is common knowledge in NYS that Bill Clinton is grooming him.
Grooming Hillary?? She certainly needs it, I'm sure...