I implore Long Islanders to see for themselves how New York State Senate Republicans torpedoed four landmark gun reform bills in New York on Feb. 2, effectively neglecting their constituents that they were elected to protect and serve and leaving them vulnerable to further Mass Shootings and death.
This video gives a detailed education on the 4 Gun Reform Bills that New York State Senate Democrats tried to pass early this year.
Long Island Republicans: Senator Phillips (District 7), Senator Marcellino (District 5) and Senator Flanagan (District 2) voted against a comprehensive Gun Reform package thus need to be voted out. These Senators are playing politics with matters of life and death and thus are not fit to serve. On 11/6 vote for the Democrats so we can pass life-saving gun legislation once and for all.
Republican Senatorial Obstructionists Blocked:
1. Extreme Risk Protection Order (S7133): also called gun violence restraining orders, or red flag law—enable courts to temporarily prohibit a person from having guns if law enforcement or immediate family members show that he poses a significant danger to himself or others.
2. Banning Bump stocks (S 6902): bump stocks make a semi-automatic weapon into a machine gun. The law would ban the manufacture, importation and possession of bump stocks. Once the rule becomes effective, anyone owning one would be required to destroy it.
3. Creation of the New York State Firearm Violence Research Institute (S4363): Gun violence is a public health crisis that claims 33,000 American lives each year. Despite this, the federal government bans research on gun violence and its prevention (thanks to the 1997 NRA-backed “Dickey Amendment”). New York and other states must take action to fill this gap and help research ways to prevent gun violence and the deaths and injuries it causes. Establishing this research center will help ensure a long-term effort toward understanding and preventing future firearm-related violence against New Yorkers.
4. Effective Background Check Act (S 5808): Currently, there is a three-day waiting period for a background check to be completed before a seller can transfer a firearm to a purchaser. If the check is not completed in that time, the firearm may be sold without a background check at all. Over 300,000 background checks were not concluded in the three-day period in 2016 alone. Sen. Gianaris’ proposal would extend the waiting period to 10 days so that proper background checks could be completed in all cases.
Coincidentally a week before the Parkland Massacre, that occurred on 2/14/18, NYS Senate Democrats announced on 2/7/18 their intention to push to the floor for a vote, the 4 Gun Reform Bills mentioned above. On 2/20/18 the Dems declares that the time to act was now in the wake of the school shooting and no more time could be wasted. Since they do not have the majority in State Senate (they lack the majority by a SINGLE SEAT) they are unable to control what bills are brought to the floor for a vote. They acted on an opportunity to force the bills on the floor by using a procedural method to attach these bills as an amendment to an existing bill that would be voted on on a specific day.
On 2/28/18 the Senate Dems announced their intention to attach the bills to a hunting bill. The acting Senate President Senator Croci immediately struck it down and said the amendment was not germane (related). The Senate Dems then were allowed to appeal the ruling and state their case. The goal is gather a majority of votes to overturn the Majority leaders decision. For 18 compelling minutes the Senate Democrats laid out their case on why the 4 bills are crucial and life saving. They used facts, figures and appealed to basic decency and common sense to ask the Republicans to do the right things and pass these laws to save lives and protect our children and families from further mass shootings.
Upon conclusion of their appeal, Senator Croci unsympathetically with a stone faced demeanor asked for a vote to find out who was in favor of overturning his ruling. All 29 Democrats raised their hands. Not a single Republican State Senator crossed over the aisle and felt that these bills were important and critical enough to be passed. Croci turned down the appeal, and without missing a beat motioned to move to the next order of business for the day. It was a cruel, disrespectful and cold blooded ending to what was the most passionate appeal on Gun Reform I’ve ever seen. So thanks to the NY State Senate Republicans that’s how the biggest push for comprehensive gun reform ended as quickly as it started on 2/28/18.
We need to hold our State Senators accountable and if they fail to keep our families safe and vote on behalf of the will of the people, then we need to vote them out. On Nov 6, I implore residents of Long Island to vote for Democrat Candidates Anna Kaplan (Senate District 7) Jim Gaughran (Senate District 5) and Kathleen Cleary (Senate District 2) and to reelect Democrat Senator Brooks (Senate District 8). We are 1 seat away from flipping the NY State Senate. If we are successful in flipping to Democrat control we can pass landmark legislation on gun reform, women’s reproductive rights, voting reform, immigration, health care, protection of minority groups, Education reform etc…Please Vote ROW A all the way!
Alethea Shapiro
Roslyn
