Inn at New Hyde Park ‘doesn’t deserve our business:’ Nassau Democrats

Rebecca Klar
The Nassau County Democrats announced they have moved an event originally planned to be held at the Inn at New Hyde Park since the catering hall is hosting an NRA event. (Photo courtesy of Google Maps)

The Nassau County Democrats have relocated an upcoming fundraiser from the Inn at New Hyde Park after the catering hall refused to cancel a scheduled National Rifle Association fundraiser, Nassau County Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs said Friday.

“Let me make this perfectly clear: the NRA is not welcome in our community, and any business who would support putting our children at risk like this does not deserve our business,” Jacobs said in a statement.

Jacobs is the latest in a long line of local Democrats standing with gun safety advocates in protesting the catering hall’s decision to hold the event.

A Nassau County Republican party spokesman said the GOP had no comment on the Democrats pulling their fundraiser from the inn.

Jacobs said that as soon as the party found out the Inn at New Hyde Park was hosting an event for the NRA “it became very apparent to us that we could not hold our own even there.”

Jacobs said he asked the inn to cancel the NRA event, and they said their lawyers advices them not to break their contract.

The Oct. 22 fundraiser will be held at a different venue, Jacobs said.

“The Democratic party is not just any association, we are a political party that represents certain values, certain principals and certain policies,” Jacobs said in an interview. “So it would’ve been at the very best hypocritical had we decided that we could hold an event to raise money for our organization at the same place that hosted a fundraiser for the NRA.”

The NRA fundraiser, hosted by Nassau County Friends of NRA, is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 27 at 5:30 p.m, according to the group’s website.

Tickets range in price from $65, for a single ticket, to $2,000, for the Charlton Heston Table.

The event features a raffle and auction with prizes including a .410 gauge Henry Lever Action Shotgun with a Second Amendment engraving. 

“In the wake of Parkland, Florida and so much bloodshed at the hands of firearms, it is appalling that the NRA would auction firearms event so close to local schools and put lives of residents and children in harm’s way,” Jacobs said in a statement. “The notion that the NRA could auction firearms within feet of our schools is not only disturbing, but insane.”

U.S. Rep Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove), North Hempstead Town Councilwoman Anna Kaplan (D-Great Neck), state Assemblyman Charles Lavine (D-Glen Cove) and state Assemblyman Anthony D’Urso (D-Port Washington), have all expressed a shared concern for the NRA event being held in Nassau.

D’Urso has planned a gun safety forum, co-hosted by two local gun legislation reform advocate groups, the same day as the NRA’s event in New Hyde Park.

The forum will be held at the Great Neck Library at 7 p.m.

Jacobs said that his party stands “completely and diametrically opposed the NRA and what they stand for.”

“Particularly in these times with the violence and the continuous and regular shootings that we see, everyone has to take a stand,” Jacobs said. 

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