The Tea Party and the National Rifle Association are taking aim at state Sen. Jack Martins because he voted in favor of the New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act of 2013 in January. He should be proud of that vote and he should wear their criticism as a badge of honor.
Two weeks ago some 50 demonstrators came to Mineola to protest that vote.
“We’re upset with Jack Martins, the state senator here. He voted for the SAFE act and we think it’s a violation of his conservative Republican ideals,” said Stephen Flanagan, founder and director of Conservative Society for Action. “This law has no impact on the criminal element. All it does is penalize law-abiding gun owners in the state.”
“Right now we’re withdrawing our support for Jack Martins and we want to make it clear that he has opposition in this district,” Flanagan said.
We have grown weary of the nonsense coming from the Tea Party, the NRA and others on the far right. These organizations are fanning the flames of paranoia and threatening any politician who has the nerve to oppose their political agenda.
Because of these organizations, many people sincerely fear that Obama has set out to abolish the 2nd Amendment and that government agents will soon be breaking down their doors and taking away their hunting rifles.
That has not happened and there is no evidence that this will happen. It is a self-serving myth created by the NRA and the Tea Party.
In contrast the SAFE Act was written last year in response to the very real slaughter of 20 children and six adults at the Sandy Hook School in Newtown, Conn., by a madman dressed like Rambo and carrying a semi-automatic assault weapon. Even if the security guards at the school had been armed, they would have been overpowered in a matter of seconds.
This massacre and others like it are real and the state Legislature and Congress are morally obligated to do what they can to prevent future massacres.
Flanagan repeated the line that has become the anthem of the pro-gun lobby, “All it does is penalize law-abiding gun owners in the state.”
This propaganda was created by the NRA, which is funded by the nation’s largest arms manufacturers. The SAFE Law is not perfect but it does nothing to “penalize” responsible gun owners.
It reduces the legal limit for rifle magazine capacity from 10 rounds to seven, establishes a registry for assault gun owners in the state and requires background checks for all gun and ammunition sales.
The law will make it harder for mentally ill people to buy a gun and, hopefully, it will make it harder for dealers to buy guns in other states and sell them to criminals in New York.
We applaud Martins for having the courage to support this legislation and we condemn the people who are harassing Martins and his family, even banging on his doors and windows in the middle of the night. It’s scary to think that some of those people own guns.
“This legislation,” said Martins, “is packed with positives: background checks to keep guns away from people who shouldn’t have them, funding for greater security at our children’s schools, and most important, it makes illegal gun possession a felony with mandatory jail time. It’s going to keep our communities safer without question.”
The people of Martins’ district should be proud that they have a senator who is willing to put aside partisanship and vote for legislation that he sincerely believes in.
And while we’re at it: the implied threat to the reelection of Martins calls into question the Tea Party on Long Island’s status as a 501(c)(4) organization which is based on its insistence that the organization is about advocating ideas not supporting or opposing any political candidate.
We’re not advocating any candidate here, we’re just anti-malarchy.
