Yesterday the New York Assembly passed by a 85 to 60 vote Assembly Bill 1157B, microstamping legislation sponsored by Assemblyman Michelle Schimel (D-16). The Assembly has passed this ill-conceived legislation during each of the last five legislative sessions, despite evidence that this bill does nothing to prevent or solve violent crime. Microstamping is easily circumvented and relies on the false premise that crimes are committed with legally-registered firearms.

     This session, New York finally eliminated its costly and ineffective CoBis system – the state ballistic imaging database. That expensive program tapped taxpayers $4 million annually for roughly a decade without solving a single crime. Yesterday, the anti-gun majority in the New York Assembly demonstrated that they learned nothing from that failed experiment. No other state has imposed microstamping, and yet, anti-gun lawmakers in Albany are determined to foist this bad bill onto New Yorkers despite numerous warnings that it would have damaging consequences for law-abiding gun owners.

     The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois ruled this week that it is unconstitutional for Chicago to treat people with non-violent misdemeanor convictions the same as convicted felons. The NRA-supported case, Gowder v. Chicago, involves plaintiff Shawn Gowder, who was convicted as a first-time offender for mere possession of a firearm in violation of Illinois law in 1995. His misdemeanor record did not block him from getting a state Firearm Owner's Identification card, so he could still legally possess a gun in Illinois.

     Nonetheless, when Mr. Gowder, who lives in a high crime area of Chicago, began the process to legally acquire a handgun to keep in his home for self-defense (a process required following the McDonald decision), the Chicago police denied his application. Mr. Gowder sued the city, maintaining that Chicago's law banning non-violent misdemeanants from possessing guns in their homes for self-defense is unconstitutionally vague, and that it violates the Second Amendment.

This week, the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations approved, by a vote of 30-19, an amendment offered by Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.), to prohibit the use of federal funds to carry out the BATFE's requirement that firearm dealers in the four southwestern border states file "multiple sales" reports on individuals who buy more than one detachable-magazine semi-automatic rifle of greater than .22 caliber in a five-day period.

The NRA and the National Shooting Sports Foundation are challenging the reporting requirement in federal court, arguing that this "demand letter" program is illegal because Congress has specifically required multiple sales reports only on handguns, implicitly exempting other firearms from the requirement. And as Rep. Rehberg said after the committee's vote, if the BATFE's scheme is allowed to continue, it "could be expanded to other states using the same obscure regulatory process used to create the rule."

     Anti-gunners in New York are back again this year with the same failed microstamping scheme that has been defeated in previous sessions.  The New York Senate Codes Committee is scheduled to consider S675B on Tuesday, March 13, and it is imperative that gun owners in New York make their voices heard now.

The New York Senate Codes Committee was scheduled to consider Senate Bill 675B, microstamping legislation, but this bill was moved to the Senate Rules Committee.  A hearing date has not yet been scheduled in that new committee.

Introduced by state Senator José Peralta (D-13), S675B would require all semi-automatic pistols delivered to any licensed firearms dealer in New York to mechanically stamp an alpha-numeric or geometric code on the cartridge case, which would be used to identify the make, model and serial number of the gun.  This unproven technology is easily defeated by criminals and would only add to the cost of firearms.  Gun control advocates understand that this is a backdoor attack on the Second Amendment by forcing manufacturers out of the state and driving up the cost of firearms for New Yorkers.  It would have terrible repercussions for the state's economy, as manufacturers would likely pack up and leave the Empire State, taking valuable jobs with them.

From the first moment that the American people became aware that senior BATFE officials ordered agents in the field to allow guns sold in the U.S. to be smuggled on an all-but-certain path to Mexico’s vicious drug cartels, many of us have wondered “why.” What possible legitimate purpose could be fulfilled by allowing a large number of guns—over 2,000, by some estimates—to disappear across our southwestern border without the Mexican government’s knowledge?

There has been only one logical answer possible. Someone within the BATFE or higher in the Department of Justice wanted the smuggled guns to be recovered at crime scenes in Mexico, and traced to sources within the U.S., so that the Obama Administration could claim a need for one or another gun control measure being pushed by anti-gun groups. Someone who values gun control more than the lives of innocent people killed by cartel operatives armed with the BATFE’s “walked” guns. Someone who believes, as one BATFE official put it, that “to make an omelet, you have to break some eggs.”

Last week, Mexican President Felipe Calderon unveiled a “billboard” near the U.S. border made of crushed firearms formed into the words, "No More Weapons!"The Mexican government (aided by American media) has consistently claimed that their country’s crime problems are due, in large part, to the flow of firearms into Mexico from the U.S. 

This sentiment has been bolstered by the Obama administration through U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, his Department of Justice, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives now-infamous “Fast and Furious” gunrunning operation.

BATFE officials who supervised the operation out of Phoenix claimed as early as 2008 that 90 percent of the guns seized in Mexico came from the U.S.Of course, it has now been shown that many of Mexico’s traced firearms originate in Central America and other countries.  In other words, the “90 percent” statistic was widely reported, but was obviously inflated, and BATFE officials have themselves refuted those numbers.

     On Thursday, February 2, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee regarding his role in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' gun running operation known as “Fast and Furious.”

During the hearing, Holder continued to deny any foreknowledge of the botched operation.  Representative Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House committee, led the charge in questioning Holder on his involvement and knowledge.  When Issa asked Holder if he had been briefed on the wiretaps presented in this case, Holder responded, "These wiretaps are very voluminous, read well kinds of things.  I have not read them."