New Yorkers wake up!!

[Ruger Lady]

If gun owner's and hunters in New York State don't wake up there will be a knock at your door and the law will be asking for all you guns. If you don't believe me, check out this pdf file of 18 pages of proposed and signed into law, gun/hunting laws for this year!!! Some are good but most are BAD. Please start fighting for your right to keep and bear arms. New York law makers have already made it illegal for us to defend ourselves using less lethal means like pepper spray and tasers. All we have left is firearms and if were not careful, we're going to lose that too. Then we might as well wear a sign that says "victim here".

http://www.nysrpa.org/nysrpa-lr.pdf

[rheaj]

I think I'm going to be sick! :Image19:

[rheaj]

Looking more closely at this pdf file, I am having trouble understanding which proposals are actually threats. Not which ones are anti-gun and which ones are pro-gun - rather which ones have any real chance of making it to full blown law. The Committee Status column is full of things I don't understand. I know that many bills never make it out of committee, so it doesn't make much sense to pressure our representatives until it gets out of committee.

Can anyone enlighten me on the Committee Status column? What do "Codes," "enCon," "3rd Reading," "Elections," "Judiciary," and all the others means? Is there a legend for this thing? I presume that these are the names of the Committees that are considering them? If so, how do we know when something gets past committee? Does the date indicate when it passed the committee? Or when it was submitted to the committee?

I want to start writing some letters, but I want to target them specifically to the proposals that are a threat, and I want to avoid sending letters that simply say "I oppose all these anti-gun measures."

I'll do some research toward a better understanding, but thought perhaps some folks here already know this stuff?

Thanks!

[Ruger Lady]

I have the same problem. I asked a friend who has a good understanding of this stuff and even he doesn't know what some of them mean. But from what I understand, what you want is to have the bill die in committee. If it gets to 3rd reading and election, it's usually not good. But I could be way off. It can be so confusing. I would also appreciate any one with knowledge of what the definitions mean. Also if I'm right or wrong?:icon14:

[rheaj]

I've done some research to get a better understanding of the NYS legislative process, in the hopes of being better informed and better able lto fight against legislation I oppose. I have found some good resources and information that I want to share with the New Yorkers here...

The following page provides an overview of the lawmaking process in NYS. It gives a good high level understanding of how bills move through the committees, get their readings, get voted on and eventually get signed into law:
New York State Senate >> About the Senate >> How a Bill Becomes a Law

This page is important:
http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/menuf.cgi
It has links to look up bills and proposals. Note that while the NYSRPA pdf document lists document numbers with dashes (i.e. A-76), this page requires you to search without the dashes (i.e. A76) - otherwise it will tell you "invalid bill number." This page also has links to see the Senate and Assemble calendars, both the floors and the committees.

Looking up a bill number gives you the most recent status of the bill, and its HISTORY! This is important. For example, the NYSRPA pdf document says that bill A-76 "Passed Assembly." But looking up the bill on this website reveals that the bill passed the Assembly before, and "died in Senate." So chances are it will die in Senate again. Here's the entire history of that particular bill:

STATUS: 
A76-A  Weisenberg (MS)      
Penal Law
TITLE....Enacts the "children's weapon accident prevention act"
01/03/07 referred to codes 
03/27/07 reported 
03/28/07 advanced to third reading cal.166 
04/25/07 passed assembly 
04/25/07 delivered to senate 
04/25/07 REFERRED TO CODES 
01/09/08 DIED IN SENATE 
01/09/08 RETURNED TO ASSEMBLY 
01/09/08 ordered to third reading cal.6 
01/29/08 amended on third reading 76a 
04/14/08 passed assembly 
04/14/08 delivered to senate 
04/14/08 REFERRED TO CODES

The bill search page also lets you fill in check boxes to reveal the bill's actual text, a summary, and the sponsor's memos. The memo is very interesting too. It provides the "justification" for the bill and reveals where they got their numbers and statistics to support the idea. This is a great source of data that we can use to debunk the shaky foundations of the anti-gunners. By pointing out the falacy of their data and shedding light on their skewed perspectives of the facts, we can promote truth and fact in these bills. The memo also reveals past versions of the bill. A76 for example, is a bill that the Assembly has been trying to get passed since 1993:

PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
1993: A1598-A - Passed Assembly
1994: A40002 - Passed Assembly
1995: A1382 - Passed Assembly
1996: A1382 - Passed Assembly
1997: A651-A - Passed Assembly
1998: A.651-F - Passed Assembly
1999: A.1407-B - Passed Assembly
2000: A.1407-B - Passed Assembly
2001: A.5363-B - Passed Assembly
2002: A.5363-C - Passed Assembly
2004: A.4615-C - Passed Assembly
2005: A.673 - Passed Assembly
2006: A.673 - Passed Assembly

A lot probably happens in committee. As the text in the first link I gave you says - "The committee stage is the second point at which the citizen's contribution is important. An expression of opinion on a proposed bill can be sent directly to the committee chairman, or it can be sent to your local Senator for relay to the committee members." If you go to New York State Legislature and click on either the senate or assembly committee agendas, you get a list of the committees. This list correlates to the "committee status" column in the NYSRPA pdf file. If you are concerned about a particular proposed piece of legislation, see what committee is considering it, then check out that committee's agenda.

For example, I might be concerned about A243, which the NYSRPA pdf file gives a committee status of "Codes 1/9/08" (a look at the bill's status shows that the bill was "referred to codes" on that date). If I click on the Assembly calendar (I can tell it is an Assembly bill and not a Senate bill because it starts with an A instead of an S), I can then see that the Codes committee meets again on 5/28/08. If I click on Codes, I see that the agenda includes discussion of 13 bills - none of which are 243. If it were on the agenda, I might write a letter to the chairman of that committee asking him to read my letter to the entire committee to consider a citizen's point of view on this particular bill.

OK, so - what to watch out for? In the pdf file from NYSRPA, I would be most concerned with items that say "passed Assembly" or "passed Senate." Check the status of these bills. It may be that it then dies in the other body, but it may also be that it passed the other body already. If it is passed the second body, then it gets sent to the Governor for signature. If it has passed one body, and been submitted to the other, then check the Floor Calendar to see when it will be voted on. Then immediately write your appropriate representative, depending on which body it is going to, and express your opposition.

I'm also going to go through the pdf file from NYSRPA and look for the bills that trouble me the most. For example, A2772-A bans .50 caliber and above and required the State Police to seek out and take away such weapons that are already lawfully owned. Here is the status of this bill:

STATUS: 
A2772-A  Eddington (MS)       
Penal Law
TITLE....Bans the sale, use or possession of 50-caliber weapons
01/19/07 referred to codes 
04/17/07 reported referred to ways and means 
04/17/07 reported 
04/19/07 advanced to third reading cal.215 
04/25/07 passed assembly 
04/25/07 delivered to senate 
04/25/07 REFERRED TO CODES 
01/09/08 DIED IN SENATE 
01/09/08 RETURNED TO ASSEMBLY 
01/09/08 ordered to third reading cal.250 
01/29/08 amended on third reading 2772a 
04/14/08 passed assembly 
04/14/08 delivered to senate 
04/14/08 REFERRED TO CODES

I'm not sure how threatening this bill is since the Senate referred it back to the codes committee, but it did pass the Assembly. I fear this one could go from codes, back the Senate, and pass before we know it. So, I plan to write to the chairman of codes to express my concerns about this bill, and explain the fact that eliminating .50 caliber muzzle loaders from NYS will not reduce crime in any way shape or form. The sponsor says that .50 cal guns "...are used for long range tactical assassination..." The committee needs to know what ".50 caliber" really means and that this bill stomps all over the rights of muzzleloading sportsmen throughout NYS. So, I'll ask the committee to "star" this bill (see the first link I provided to learn what starrting a bill meanas). I'll also watch the status of this one to see where it goes next. If it goes to the Senate, you can bet I'll be asking for NO votes from anybody who will listen, in my district or not.

This is by no means an all inclusive set of resources and information to fight NYS anti-gun legislation, but I wanted to share what I have learned so far. I encourage others to comment, correct me, add to it, etc.

[willyNY]

If you want to hear (the ignorance) of the "Gun Control Day" procedings, you can the the .mp3 transcripts on New York State Rifle & Pistol Association. Go down to the "[Gun Control Day '08] link on the left side of the page.

I listened to the entire thing and was blown away by the sheer stupidity of some of the individuals. It takes a couple of hours, so turn it on, set up the press, and get to reloading. (before that is outlawed too)

[rheaj]

I signed up for the NYSRPA email alerts and was very happy to receive notices of bills that are on the agenda for the week's committee meetings. That's useful!

I don't know if I can stomach the "Gun Control Day" audio, but I'll try. Thanks for the link!