Kathleen, The Pretender

The latest episode in the lead-up to Wednesday, September 13, 2023 is the new flyer, bearing the NYSP logo, which is titled “New York is Now a “Point of Contact” State.”  Download this 1-page flyer FREE from my website.

First, see my Emergency Motion filed 08.29.2023 to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in the federal civil rights case of Gazzola v. Hochul. It requests a stay against the conversion of NY to a POC state, a stay of the launch of the new ammunition background check system, and more.  Also see my blog on the power grab by Hochul to takeover the whole (100%) of the firearms background check system without state law authorization to do so – laws she, herself, and her self-designated “experts” jammed through the NYS Leg summer 2022.

Now, look at this new NYSP flyer, left column, third bullet point, where it says:

“Ammunition background checks will be “Denied” if state records indicate that the purchaser is legally prohibited from receiving ammunition.”

What “state records?”

So here we go. 

Turn back to the 08.04.2023 e-mail issued by the National Shooting Sports Foundation.  It, too, is available for FREE download from this website.  It says:

“Amazingly the state police said that there could be situations where someone could pass a background check for a firearm but fail for the ammunition.”

Believe me, I saw that, as quickly as you were e-mailing, calling, and texting me to say, “What?”

When you look at the new NYSP flyer, right hand column, you’ll see the newest episode of “Kathleen the Pretender” copying federal law and pretending she’s actually doing something about crime.  The list of factors the new NYSP flyer lists as basis for denial of an ammunition purchase are the federal disqualification factors for the purchase of a firearm under 18 USC 922(g).  (Not that Pretenders, throughout history, ever give credit where credit is due, in this case, to bi-partisan congressional bills and presidents from both political parties.)

There is no federal ammunition background check.

Congress expressly rejected a federal ammunition background check.

And this is not the first or only example of the 2022 Hochul laws containing provisions that were already repealed by Congress or otherwise rejected in draft by Congress. 

As I wrote in our Gazzola v. Hochul Reply Brief to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals:

“The “new” state laws are littered with overturned federal laws, dating back to 1968.” 

In fact, if you turn to this Reply Brief, another FREE download from my website, you’ll see four pages (pp. 27-32) of detailed legal arguments against the very laws Hochul is now racing to launch by September 13, 2023.  Looking deeper into the plaintiffs’ Reply Brief, see also the arguments we set out that the 1968 “Gun Control Act” – the very federal law that first required dealers of firearms to register with the federal government – originally required dealers also to register for sales of ammunition, but that provision was expressly repealed by Congress in 1986 as part of the “Firearms Owners Protection Act.” (pp. 50-51).

Not only does Hochul want an unconstitutional ammunition background check launched on September 13, 2023, she, again, flies in the face of Congress, by attempting to do so.  And she flies in the face of the federal Due Process clause by intending to use some amorphous “state records” to deny that purchase.  Further, she’s going to do so with no denial appeal process in place.

Anyone getting riled up about a $2.50 surcharge per box of ammunition is distracted by a flea on a dog covered in ticks.  A bill to repeal the $9/$2.50 charges coming out of a GOP lawmaker is an insult to the Second Amendment and to gun owners.  It’s no better than the new bill to create more exemptions to CCIA “sensitive locations” restrictions against concealed carry. Where is the bill to repeal the CCIA? Where is the bill to repeal the ammunition background check? 

For that matter… Where is the Second Circuit ruling striking it down as unconstitutional under the Second Amendment and NYSRPA v. Bruen – a motion pending since March 20, 2023 and now revisited as an Emergency Motion with request for expedited processing on August 29, 2023?  Where was the District Court ruling on our Emergency Motion for TRO/PI in our favor, which was filed November 8, 2023, but denied?  Where was the US Supreme Court ruling on our Emergency Motion for TRO filed January 3, 2023 and then our Rule 11 Petition, which were filed January 9, 2023, both of which were denied?

This Tuesday morning, following the Labor Day weekend, dawns uneasy.  We filed our latest Emergency Motion in Gazzola v. Hochul last Tuesday afternoon with request for expedited scheduling.  Crickets.  I called and learned the motion was assigned to the panel of three judges who already hold our fate on the Emergency Motion for Preliminary Injunction - fully submitted March 20, 2023.  With every hour, I will be gauging and weighing filing, again, to SCOTUS, certainly in response to a denial, but, potentially in response to an absence of ruling.

A judicial stay against the launch of the ammunition background check is the easiest, most simple request within our entire Gazzola v. Hochul lawsuit.  Will Kathleen the Pretender manage to grab her paper crown and steal the title “Tough on Crime” or will a majority of judges at the Second Circuit or at SCOTUS put an end to this madness? For, truly, there is no rightful throne when it comes to the Second Amendment. We’ve already had our Revolution. Ours are fundamental, first-class rights that emanate from within the natural rights of man.

If only that Man can find Justice.