“Proposed legislation in New York could make the state in the nation the first to block gun makers from selling pistols if they don’t take measures to prevent them from being able to be converted to fire like machine guns,” The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. “The bill … was drafted in response to the growing use of the attachments, called ‘pistol converters’ or ‘Glock switches,’ that are placed on popular semiautomatic pistols such as those made by Glock, said the bill’s sponsor, state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, a Democrat who represents a Brooklyn district.”
From S9225 (ACTIVE) – BILL TEXT:
“CONVERTIBLE PISTOL” MEANS ANY SEMI-AUTOMATIC PISTOL THAT CAN BE CONVERTED INTO A MACHINE-GUN SOLELY BY THE INSTALLATION OR ATTACHMENT OF A PISTOL CONVERTER…
What semiauto pistols (or rifles, for that matter) are not convertible, or how to render the ones that are no longer convertible, is left undefined. And that’s intentional.
When it comes to citizen disarmament, Myrie’s establishing himself as a player. As the article notes, Democrats control both houses in the New York legislature, and he has sponsored several of their “gun control” measures. In 2021, he was named “lawmaker of the year” by billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown and its funded subsidiaries Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action for fighting to sue gun makers for abuse of their products by criminals.
He’s pushed for financial discrimination against the gun industry, and wants to “amend the state’s criminal nuisance law, which states that individuals are prohibited from engaging in reckless or unlawful behavior that may violate the health and safety of others, to include the sale or manufacturing of products that endanger people’s health or safety, like guns.”
As for those doing the actual endangering and killing with guns? He makes a curious comparison.
“On 3/31/1817, the NYS legislature abolished slavery in this state,” he declared in a pinned tweet. “On 3/31/2019, we voted to reform the state’s criminal justice system. It was a vote to begin the journey of freeing my people from mass incarceration and the honor of my life to be a part of this historic time.”
“In 2021, as a rise in gun violence swept through communities of color across the state and the country, Senator Myrie wrote the first-in-the-nation gun industry liability law, aiming to hold irresponsible dealers and manufacturers whose dangerous weapons end up on our streets accountable in court,” he asserted on his campaign website. “He also sponsored a law that now requires the state to invest resources in hospital-and community-based violence intervention programs which are proven to break the cycle of gun violence. In 2022, in response to Supreme Court decisions Senator Myrie played a crucial part in strengthening New York’s current concealed-carry permit laws.”
We’ve seen how “violence intervention programs” “work.” Some examples:
- “Anti-violence worker busted with gun on Near West Side street, Chicago police say,” CWB Chicago reported in March. He’s charged with Class X armed habitual criminal and being a felon in possession of a firearm.”
- “The Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted a raid on the headquarters of Baltimore’s ‘Safe Streets’ program … reportedly on allegations that the taxpayer-funded community program is somehow mixed up with the very gang members they are supposed to be keeping in check,” The Western Journal reported last October.
- “Anti-violence program director pleads guilty in Orange County drug probe,” the Times Union reported that same month.
- “Head of Group Involved in NYC’s ‘Blueprint to End Gun Violence’ Hit With Gun, Drug Charges,” Townhall reported in August.
- “A former Boston Public Schools academic dean who led a double life as a member of the Latin Kings gang and shot a student pleaded guilty to racketeering charges,” Boston.com reported in 2022.
I could go on and on. Seriously. I’ve been noticing these things since 2007 when I learned about Hector “Big Weasel” Marroquin, who founded No Guns “purportedly to work against gang and gun violence in the inner city [and] charged with the sale of an assault rifle, a machine gun, two pistols and two silencers…It is his second weapons-related arrest in as many years.”
Back to this raving Myrie collectivist’s latest assault on the right of the people to keep and bear arms – if it “succeeds,” it won’t end up just applying to pistols:
…what law enforcement officials say is a growing threat: Handguns and rifles [emphasis added] illegally modified with a small device to shoot like machine guns. Referred to as “Glock switches” or “auto sears,” these devices have proliferated on the streets, officials say, amplifying the impact of gun violence. Tiny, cheap and easy to install, they are being imported from China, but also are being made with 3D printers.
The grabbers will include semi-auto rifles in the mix, and as long as they’re on a roll, why limit the qualifiers to internal devices like switches and sears? As long as they’re being redundantly obsessive, why not ban firearms that external devices like “bump stocks” can be attached to?
But no one’s talking about taking your guns – right?
So, Sen. Myrie, ban guns, sue manufacturers out of existence, jail gun owners exercising their rights caught violating your edicts, and “let my people (those committing the crimes) go,” because… racism? That’s the “commonsense gun safety” you and the despicable Astroturfers backing you are trying to impose everywhere, in Everytown…?
As peaceable gun owners we’ll go through the moves of opposing you through speech, through petitioning, through elections, and through the courts (even though we realize states thumbing their noses at the Bruen standard have virtually unlimited resources to drag their harassments on for years). But ultimately, say the Stupid Party blows it in November and the Democrats presume the power to stack the Supreme Court with rubber stampers for the violence monopolists, there’s one ultimate reality they (and you, Senator) will have to contend with from a core group of gun owners:
We will not disarm. If you’re stupid enough to push that, it’s on you.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
