State Sen. Jack Martins’ vote for gun-control legislation approved by the state Legislature in January has drawn the ire of a conservative political group, Tea Party members and the National Rifle Association
Approximately 50 demonstrators from the three groups gathered in Mineola last Saturday to protest Martins’ vote for The New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act of 2013 and affirm their right to own guns.
The demonstrators gathered on sidewalks at the intersections of Jericho Road at Mineola Boulevard and Willis Avenue from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. holding placards criticizing the Mineola Republican state senator and waving the “Don’t Tread on Me” banners adapted from the American Revolution by the Tea Party.
Some passing motorists honked their horns in apparent support of the protest.
“We’re upset with Jack Martins, the state senator here. He voted for the SAFE act and we think it’s a violation of his conservative Republican ideals,” said Stephen Flanagan, founder and director of Conservative Society for Action. “This law has no impact on the criminal element. All it does is penalize law-abiding gun owners in the state.”
The New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act of 2013 was approved by the state Legislature shortly after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Connecticut. The law reduces the legal limit for rifle magazine capacity from 10 rounds to seven, establishes a registry for assault gun owners in the state and requires background checks for all gun and ammunition sales.
“Right now we’re withdrawing our support for Jack Martins and we want to make it clear that he has opposition in this district,” Flanagan said.
Flanagan said he lives in West Islip, but said many members of his conservative organization are voters in the 7th state Senate district that Martins represents.
Steve Simon, a member of Conservative Society for Action and president of Trinity Lutheran Church in New Hyde Park, said when the conservative group met with Martins before he won election to the state Senate in 2010, Martins said he would never vote against second amendment rights.
“We put a lot of people on his campaign to help him,” Simon said. “We want to know why he did it. And he won’t even return our [phone] calls.”
Simon said Martins had cut a “backroom deal” with state Senate majority leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) to vote in favor of the SAFE act. Simon said Martins was “paid off” with appointments to the Education; Housing, Construction and Community Development, and Transportation Committees.
Martins defended his vote and chided the protestor’s tactics.
“They’re certainly within their rights to protest although banging on the doors and windows of my house and frightening my daughters when I wasn’t home was really a pitiful attempt at intimidation,” Martins said in a statement. They need to remember Ronald Reagan who said, ‘My 80 percent friend is not my 20 percent enemy.’ And that’s true here. This legislation is packed with positives: background checks to keep guns away from people who shouldn’t have them, funding for greater security at our children’s schools, and most important, it makes illegal gun possession a felony with mandatory jail time. It’s going to keep our communities safer without question.”
Rockville Centre Tea Party member Robert Dann said Tea Party members who had worked hard for Martins are disappointed with his vote on the SAFE act.
“I’m here because the Tea Party believes the law is unconstitutional,” Dann said. “Martins let us down. He voted with Skelos and his cronies.”
“My rights as a gun owner are being violated,” said William Ammann, an NRA member who lives in Mineola. “All these laws that are put out affect the law-abiding citizen and they don’t affect the criminals.”
Ammann said guns such as World War II vintage carbines that were formerly legal collectibles are now “unacceptable.”
