Mayor Bloomberg’s new gun law proposal aims for new controversial measures

Kevin Bratcher

Published: Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Updated: Tuesday, May 25, 2010

A proposed package of changes in New York City’s gun laws has lit a fire under gun enthusiasts and Second Amendment rights groups. The changes are a part of the gun law reforms proposed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.
Bloomberg touts the proposals as a way to streamline the process by which New Yorkers can obtain gun permits. One key change involves reducing the famously lengthy time and difficulty in obtaining a gun permit in New York.

The main purpose of the proposed change is to increase the number of personnel and resources available for looking into cases of illegal purchasing and possession of guns.
There are currently 30 locations within a three-mile radius of central Manhattan, which are listed as selling or manufacturing guns and gun apparel.

One building in particular, the underground-housed Westside Pistol and Rifle Range on 20th Street, boasts one of very few gun ranges in the five boroughs of New York City. Westside’s rules and regulations are strict and first-time members must pass through numerous checks and safety tutorials before they are allowed to fire a weapon on the range. For Westside, an establishment frequented by police officers and occasionally celebrity personalities, following the current rules makes Mayor Bloomberg’s proposed changes irrelevant.

It’s a similar story for Holland and Holland (H&H), a high-end rifle and shotgun manufacturer on 40th street in Mid-town Manhattan. Enclosed within a finely polished wood-panel suite on the 19th floor, H&H isn’t worried about the new proposal. One of H&H’s sales associates informed the WJI Times that their high quality firearms are very different from the sort of guns New York’s gun law changes will affect, noting that: “Our cheapest second-hand shotgun goes for $6000 at minimum.”
Beretta Gallery, a retailer operating under the trademark of gun manufacturer Beretta which produces both long guns and handguns, refused to comment on the proposed law changes.

A more controversial element of Mayor Bloomberg’s gun agenda stems from the hearing at which he testified on May 5th. In light of the attempted attack on Times Square by confessed terrorist Faisal Shahzad, Mayor Bloomberg along with Senators Frank Lautenberg and Peter King called for a ban on the ability to purchase or possess firearms if you are on the terrorist watch list.

Senator Lautenberg of New Jersey made the same proposal in 2007, garnering the approval of the Bush administration. At the time the bill was defeated in large part because of criticism from the National Rifle Association (NRA). NRA critics noted that tens of thousands of people may be on the watch list, and that since some may be falsely placed on the list, the law would become a restriction of civil rights.

Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal comes after it was discovered that Shahzad was able to buy a rifle at a gun store in Connecticut just weeks before he attempted to commit a terrorist attack in Times Square. Mayor Bloomberg also noted a Government Accountability Office report which showed that individuals on the watch list were able to buy firearms and explosives legally 1,119 times in the past six years.

However, Shahzad was not on the terrorist watch list when he purchased the gun.
Senior Editor Dave Workman of Gun Week, which is sponsored by the Second Amendment Foundation, commented on what he sees as the dangers of making such a law. “The criteria,” said Workman, “are unclear as to how one ends up on the terrorist watch list- or how one’s name is cleared, as well.”

Workman noted an incident in 2004 in which Senator Ted Kennedy encountered difficulties in boarding airplanes both to and from Boston because a name similar to his was on the terrorist watch list. “If you follow Senator Lautenberg’s logic, Senator Kennedy would not have been able to go to a sporting goods store and purchase a shotgun without having to go through a lot of red tape,” said Workman, referring to Sen. Lautenberg’s similar proposal in 2007.

Workman said, “To be automatically denied a civil right without benefit of trial or some kind of adjudication- if this were any other civil right I think the ACLU and a lot of civil liberties organizations would be screaming at the top of their lungs.”

Virginian lawyer and author of the brand-new political thriller “Montanamo” Chris Leibig raised further criticism of the terrorist watch list in a phone interview. “A terrorist watch-list is not like a criminal history report,” he said. “The criteria for being on the list are secret. Only specific branches of the government know what it takes to get on the list. The list would give the government the sole power to deny someone a gun without the person knowing about it. There’s no due process at all.”

Asked if he believed the terrorist watch list was effective, Leibig admitted, “I feel sure that attacks have been prevented, partially through use of the list…it may be an important tool. What it shouldn’t be used for is to deny people Constitutional rights.”
Senators Lautenberg and King are pushing along with Mayor Bloomberg and other mayors to have this legislation put on the board in both the House and the Senate. If they succeed it will become illegal for anyone suspicious enough to warrant being placed on the terrorist watch list to purchase a firearm.