DAVE ROSS

Movement on the gun issue

Jan 15, 2013, 5:17 AM | Updated: 5:46 am

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks during a news conference announcing an agreement with legislative leaders New York's Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act in the Red Room at the Capitol on Monday, Jan. 14, 2013, in Albany, N.Y. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

(AP Photo/Mike Groll)

Look at this gun control bill in the New York legislature:
It expands the ban on assault weapons to include certain handguns and shotguns. It requires mental health professionals to report any patient likely to harm themselves or others, so that the cops can confiscate that patient’s firearms.

It would also hold gun owners to certain standards for storing their weapons if they live with someone who can’t legally touch them.

New York would also ban any gun magazine that can hold over 7 rounds, require background checks, for most private gun sales, to buy ammo, and it alert the cops if you buy a large number of weapons. It would create a statewide database of gun licenses – which the news media would not have access to – and increase penalties for gun crimes.

Wow. How did that happen?

As for the chances of anything like that on the national level …

The latest Pew research poll finds across the board majorities among Democrats, Republicans, Independents, men and women – and I’m talking well about 80 percent in most cases – supporting two things: extending background checks to gun shows and private sales, and preventing people with mental illness from buying guns.

With numbers like that, if Congress can’t figure out a way to address at least those two issues, Democracy is a failure, and we might as well go back to a monarchy.

Of course we won’t because that’s why the Second Amendment was passed – to protect us from tyranny by arming people like James Yeager.

“I am not letting my country be ruled by a dictator. I’m not letting anybody take my guns. If it goes one inch further, I’m going to start killing people.”

James Yeager is a Tennessee firearms instructor, explaining what he’d do if the President signed an executive order restricting guns. He later said he’d let his emotions get the best of him. But the Tennessee authorities suspended his concealed carry permit anyway. He also might want to avoid New York.

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Movement on the gun issue