"Don't Give An Inch!"

NYPD cracks down on long guns that hold more than five rounds | Fox News:  (December 5, 2013)

The New York City Police Department is taking aim at owners of shotguns and rifles capable of holding more than five rounds, demanding such guns be surrendered, altered or taken out of the city. The demand came in the form of some 500 letters mailed out to owners of registered long guns that are in violation of a 2010 city ordinance. The first option for the letter's recipient is to, "Immediately surrender your Rifle and/or Shotgun to your local police precinct, and notify this office of the invoice number. The firearm may be sold or permanently removed from the City of New York thereafter." 

 The notices, mailed Nov. 18, also give owners the options of demonstrating the gun has been moved out of NYPD jurisdiction or modified by a licensed gunsmith to comply with the law. 

Although an NYPD spokeswoman told FoxNews.com the law has been on the books since 2010, critics say this year is the first time the notices were so widely dispersed. The notice was first reported on the  website TheTruthAboutGuns.com.

 It's good to be King.  You get to sleep with the Queen.  And you get to make your own laws!

This is wrong on so many levels:

• Unconstitutional
• Undermines the public confidence of the Citizenry in their "government"
• Includes taxes on AMMO?
• Options include "modification by licensed gunsmith"
• Exposes lies of "registration"
• Exposes lies of "confiscation"

Let's look at these questions:

Unconstitutional:
Violates Second Amendment.  What part of "shall not infringe" do you not understand, Mayor Bloomberg?   The Second Amendment is as inviolable as the First Amendment, and all other Amendments to the Constitution of the United States.  They apply equally to all states, all counties or parishes, and all municipalities.  Mayor Bloomberg, you may be a King, but you are still constrained by the Constitution of the United States of America.  (I see a Constitutional Challenge on this law, now that The King of NYC has established, and is openly attempting to enforce, an unconstitutional law.

Question: in a feudal society (which Bloomberg is apparently attempting to establish), would he be more than the Baron of NYC?  The Governor would apparently be a Duke or an Earl, one would think.


Undermines the public confidence:

This 'law' was enacted literally overnight, and was approved immediately by Gov. Cuomo without question.  Both the Mayor and the governor were approving "Government by Edict".  I know we are a Nation of Laws rather than a Nation of Kings, but this kind of action on a municipal and provincial level makes it clear that the public cannot count on the good will of its elected leaders.

Includes taxes on AMMO?
This portion of the law was apparently tossed in as a 'freebie', as it has nothing to do with the ammunition CAPACITY of the referenced firearms.

In 1993, then-Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) proposed an addendum to President Clinton's  "Hillary-care" bill to include a (500% - 1,000%) tax on ammunition.

"Guns don't kill people; bullets do," he told the Senate as he introduced his legislation today. "It is time the Federal Government began taxing handgun ammunition used in crime out of existence."

(SEE Blog Search for "MOYNIHAN")

But Bloomberg has taken Moynihan's radical approach to gun-control one step further by (apparently) applying the same approach to long-gun control in addition to handgun control.

Oh, and in case you're one of those poor confused people who think that removing firearms from civilian hands will 'tax ... crime out of existence', I suggest you look at the crime rates in England, where it is illegal for most people to own ANY kind of firearm.  Assault and violent crime rates are UP, because the law-abiding citizen has no way to protect themselves against aggressive violence.

So Bloomberg's Law only exacerbates the 20-year-old effort of Moynihan by applying it across the board.  Even Moynihan, that colorful Irish Clown, avoided long-gun crime because he knew that it represented only a small percent of violent crime.



Options include "modification by licensed gunsmith":
 This is merely a note of confusion;  are gunsmiths required to be licensed in NYC?  Why?  Not to disparage Gunsmiths, but they're mechanics.  You wouldn't take your car to be repaired by an incompetent auto-mechanic, why would you take your firearm to be repaired by an incompetent gunsmith?  Are all Gunsmiths required to be licensed?  Is that, like, a Federal law?



Exposes lies of "registration":
 We saw this in California in the 1990's where certain firearms were subject to registration ... and then, the State Assembly decided that some firearms were just too "evil" to abide at all.  Then they confiscated the firearms.

We've talked about this here before, and it's probably been over-discussed.  The fact is, that "Registration" almost invariably leads (eventually) to "Confiscation".   It's just one more arrow in the quiver.

We've also talked about Mayor Bloomberg (see 2011 post "Boo Bloomberg")

Confiscation:
 Finally ... why confiscation of  'banned' firearms?   There will come a time when (as Robert Heinlein so graphically illustrated in his brilliant set of essays stories based on the premise "If This Goes On"), any trend either scientific or cultural will eventually advance to its logical absurdity.

We mentioned England a few paragraphs ago.  There's a video in a 2008 post by Xavier (who has since ceased blogging) which graphically illustrates the conundrum that --- "when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qGVAQOUi6ec#t=260



The lesson is clear: it's about Liberty.

Don't give an inch!