Andrew Cuomo
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (AP Photo/Mike Groll)
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By Larry Keane

New York’s Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo is feeling the heat for more than just his COVID scandal. He’s also dodging his citizens’ demands for reducing crime while at the same time denying them their Second Amendment rights.

Gov. Cuomo’s contempt for gun owners and the firearm industry dates back over two decades to his time as Housing and Urban Development Secretary for former President Bill Clinton and has continued throughout his tenure as New York’s top executive. Now he’s announced he’s eyeing a run for a fourth term next year.

But as New Yorkers face a spiking violent crime epidemic and severely limited gun rights due to Cuomo’s flawed, and ironically named, NY SAFE Act, New York’s top executive assuaged Empire State gun owners’ concerns with, “You figure it out!”

Public Safety Whiplash

New York City residents can’t be blamed for their heightened concerns about rising crime. Throughout 2020, looters, rioters and criminals demonstrated they aren’t worried about law enforcement or repercussions. In Gotham, violent criminals were already being released from prison early because of the coronavirus pandemic. Many were re-arrested quickly for committing new violent crimes.

That was on top of New York state’s bail reform law signed by Gov. Cuomo making it even easier for criminals to get an “out of jail” pass like a frequent customer card at a sandwich shop. All the while, law-abiding New York residents watched and paid the price again and again. Over 450 businesses were destroyed between mid-May and mid-June.

Police conduct protest
(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Finally, in June 2020, following months of escalating violence, New York City’s Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio announced his plan to cut $1 billion from law enforcement’s budget. He proclaimed, “I’m excited to say we have a plan that can achieve real reform, that can achieve real redistribution…” Meanwhile, Gov. Cuomo sat on the sidelines of public safety.

Expect the Expected

It’s no surprise Gov. Cuomo failed to take action. His antigun record is clear on leaving New York gun owners high-and-dry when it comes to their rights and ability to protect themselves.

It began during his tenure as HUD Secretary for President Clinton when he organized a scheme to have 3,200 public housing authorities sue firearm manufacturers blaming them for crimes committed within those housing facilities. Congress put a stop to that farce, but it didn’t stop Gov. Cuomo’s crusade against the Second Amendment.

Fast forward to 2013 when Gov. Cuomo strongarmed his New York SAFE Act gun control scheme through Albany in the middle of the night, restricting New Yorkers’ ability to purchase and possess firearms. That policy has been challenged in the courts often, including the magazine capacity limit provision being struck down by a New York federal judge in 2013 and the law again being rebuffed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 2015.

Governor Andrew Cuomo
(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

Most recently, Gov. Cuomo shuttered New York firearm businesses during the coronavirus pandemic, deeming 5,500 total jobs in New York “non-essential” even though the industry is built on supplying and supporting the fulfillment of the essential Second Amendment.

If there were any remaining doubt Gov. Cuomo holds a special disdain for the entire firearm industry, when Ilion, N.Y.-based Remington Arms offered the governor to reconfigure their manufacturing facility to supply much-needed personal protective equipment and ventilators to ease the early supply burdens during the COVID crisis, he didn’t even answer the call.

New Yorkers are now demanding answers on his nursing home scandal that cost thousands of lives.

Failed Leadership

Now, New Yorkers are experiencing whiplash of their rights, slashed law enforcement resources and top officials bickering about who is to blame for the public safety fiasco. Gov. Cuomo is doing his best to avoid any involvement as his constituents pay the price.

Governor Andrew Cuomo
(Office of the Governor of New York via AP)

“All I’m saying to New York City is, you figure it out. You figure it out.” That was Gov. Cuomo’s response when asked about rising crime in New York City, the city’s previous cuts to law enforcement and subsequent rehiring of police to patrol the city’s metro system. They’re experiencing an especially violent crime wave, including gruesome crimes by someone dubbed, “The A-Train Ripper.”

While Gov. Cuomo continues to leave New Yorkers vulnerable to the heinous actions of violent criminals, more than 21 million Americans elsewhere went to the gun store and left with a purchase, over 8.4 million for the first time, feeling more secure.

Countless examples of gun owners using their firearms to protect their families, homes and businesses have been seen through the past year as gun ownership reached a record high among a historically diverse population, while public support for restricting Second Amendment rights has fallen to his lowest level in many years

Gov. Cuomo has repeatedly made victims of New York voters. His hollow promises and vacuous policies left New Yorkers vulnerable. His empty answers expose him for what he truly is – an ideologue who refuses to recognize the reality of his own failure and the harm he has caused.

 

Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

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67 COMMENTS

  1. If you live in NY and are complaining about this BS, then you need to move. No dem rum city is worth living in.

    • They flee the states like NY and then they turn your state into another socialist utopia.

      By the way, my state is getting bad, and I’m thinking about fleeing.

      • What State do you live in? Arizona? Georgia? North Carolina? No need to answer which one.

        You can add other States to that list and just say; “Any one of those listed”.

        • i’m in AZ. been here for a shade under 15 years. I am glad we’ve shed some of the deep red stuff, but if the ongoing shift blows past purple and onwards towards deep blue..well…i’m already starting to think of where i might have to flee to next. the hard part will be again learning how to live with either humidity or snow.

      • In another year or two there’s not going to be anywhere to retreat to. “Move to a free state”
        Not to single you out, but the strategy of tucking tail and moving is a short term solution to a problem that is soon going to be nationwide and unavoidable. Keep an eye on what the Harris administration and the totalitarians in Congress do over the next 2 years.

    • No, that just spreads this crap. People need to stay put and FIX the problems they allowed to evolve, and FIX the problems they created, and FIX the problems they voted for. No good comes from running away from problems.

    • Cheat? No. There will be no need for such. NYC is the tail that wags the dog in NYS, and it is very blue save for a few red spots in Staten Island.

  2. Wont matter pretty soon, everyone who’s not a thug or banger will already have moved south!! Guess theyll have to start shootin each other (more)!!

  3. Charge that Jim Crow Gun Control democRat with elderly abuse. You have got to be as dumb as a box of rocks to vote over and over for those worthless self serving lowlife democRats. To whom it may concern…If you move Leave your rotten NY democRat sht in NY.

    • We need to hear more often from immigrants coming here from Communist countries. They are largely appalled that they escaped from that crud to come to freedom, only to see the ninnies here espousing Marxism. The failure is in our public indoctrination centers.

    • What we need is for certain states to be split into multiple states. Upstate New York doesn’t care for NYC’s bs from my understanding, and would probably be happier as a separate state. Same for Eastern Washington, Oregon, and northern California. But instead of making the people happy, our elected officials will just bitch & whine and fuck them over.

  4. Don’t blame NYS blame NYRotten APPLE those assholes put that ed out!!! I was a police officer in the run by decree 📜 lump of whale shit back in and probably will again I’d love seeing that asshole sweat 😓 punk fuck I’d love to see gumbo voted out but as long as the rotten apple city 🌃 keeps voting the dopey fuck in I’m afraid that nothing will change

  5. I guess some did figure it out and bought a gunm. ” You figure it out” sounds like what someone would say when they’ve not got a clue on what to do.
    I certainly hope America see’s a turn around on the “I hate gunms, vote for me” , it used to work but with all the sht going down I dont think that’s going to work as well as it once did.
    And if I was the Prez I’d be damned proud that my people owned firesticks. My dad once told me “No country will try to take us because we got gunms”. It scares me when Our leadership tries to change that.

    • Well though he lived in a different America then I do it seems. His generation loved their country, the new generation forgot all about, “Ask not what your country can do for you. But what you can do for your country. “

      • I always thought that quote was a true reflection of the Imperial state mindset. What JFK was telling the mere citizens is that we are to serve the State, not the other way around. Since he thought that he was the State, it kinda makes sense.

        • Nope, JFK was getting Americans ready for a war with Russia.
          And besides “We” are the country, that’s what’s fading.Love for your country. What we’ve got now is a bunch of people that remind me of baby birds with their mouths open squawking for the next meal.
          JFK also said America will become a land of sue’ers, the news misinterpreted that as sewers. I’ll have a jelly donut

  6. Cuomo:”You figure it out!”

    People: *loads gun with malicious inte-*

    Police and Cuomo: “Not that…”

  7. Absolutely NOTHING will happen to this ass because the Dems will protect him & his dirt bag accomplishers,
    Just a normal day in the world of, I’m better & smarter than U socialist’s , ( the Democrat party),.

    • Up till last month I would have agreed with you but lately it’s been looking like he has been left out in the cold by the Biden admin and the state level democrats are starting to call for emergency powers to be removed. I will believe it when I see it but he may be a scapegoat in progress.

      • Indeed, very little is permitted in NY at all. We aren’t even allowed to get grocery bags at the store anymore. I’m on my way out. It’s been a long time coming…

        • What? Wait! I heard you can’t use your bags again because they might carry COVID-19 on them, but are you talking about fresh, new grocery bags, whether paper or plastic? Do they do the Costco thing of packing everything into empty shipping boxes?

        • No more plastic bags at any store, grocery or otherwise. You can get paper, but NY requires the stores to charge 5 cents per bag, basically leveraging faked up environmental concerns into a grocery tax. Honestly, it’s just a cash grab for a state that badly needs the money and is losing tax paying residents at a breakneck pace (and I’m not even talking about the ones murdered by our governor).

        • Some of the counties get even goofier like Albany banning plastic straws and styrofoam takeout containers. Napresto good luck and try to time your exit with taxable income to deny them as much of your check as you legally can until you are considered another state’s resident.

        • Thanks SAFEupstate! Timing is tied to the academic calendar, so who knows… NY might get at least one more big old reach into my pocket before all is said and done. Worth it (sort of)!

      • “Recall of elected officials is not permitted in New York.”

        I saw a bumper-sticker a few years back that said :

        “This Time Around, Vote From The Rooftops”… 😉

  8. Cuomo is a fkn’ race baiting p.o.s. and his voters deserve what they get for voting that Hitler twin into office.

  9. Ideologue? That’s being kind. He ideology is basically whatever shit he throws against the wall that sticks for his personal benefit.

  10. Gotta say NY’ers got what they voted for as Governator & Racist Mayor.
    I can’t say I have any Sympathy…..Take it as lessons learned the hard way! However I imagine they will repeat with their voting styles!

  11. Reminds me of a notorious former NYC mayor. Same conceited attitude, same sense of entitlement, and same hatred for all things gun. Is it the water?

  12. I don’t understand why the Gun Manufacturers and Gun Dealers don’t stand up and Fight against gov’t Bureaucracies. They could easily say “were not selling guns to the state or any LEO, till they get Equal reprenstation in state a clear Rights declaration for the people” Once the state can’t buy guns and ammo, the cops can’t either , there will be a huge shock to the gov’t. but no one has the balls to do anything about it in that state or any other. Once a group stand up to the bullies and once it gets out there how much power does that wield?

  13. New Yorkers vote for this contemptible slime while yelling to impeach Trump. Anyone in New York that casted their vote for this man is just as responsible. By their own self-serving pseudo law.

  14. Cuomo asked me what the school curriculum should be based on one time. Since I don’t live there I don’t really care and had no input. Not my job to build up the other side. They take and take but do not want to give. I would rather worry about the success of my friends than that of greedy strangers. They act like I work for them and not myself.

    Everyone in NY is corrupt so I guess for him to be a politician there he had to be corrupt. He is a reflection of his environment. I think NY’ers are scum so blame does not fall solely on government. Apparently high taxes and limited gun rights is the cost for living in a rich city full of high end stores and entertainment venues. Crime is always soaring in NY like it is there state past time. They pride themselves as being dirty and lawless. Given the unique state of attitudes commonly shared by NY citizens it is plain to see that the problems of New York are mostly local and not national. In other words regular people do not think or act like New Yorkers (or California for that matter) so there problems are there own. Their political views are too extreme. I gave up on certain regions a long time ago. If they fail I will come in and reconstruct. If they fledge along I will build a uptopia that their citizens will flock too bringing their tax dollars with them.

    If you do not want these people leaving in your areas then I should create areas for them and welcome them as refugees fleeing whatever it is they are fleeing.

  15. How can it be that two Cuomo brothers come from the same parents, but Chris is an extremely intelligent reporter, while Andrew is such a stupid governor. He has the same mindset as Mike Bloomberg. That is, they both want to remove guns from the hands of law-abiding citizens, while making sure that all the illegal guns are still on the street. That just seems to be a backwards methodology. How long will it take them to learn?

    • Chris Cuomo extremely intelligent? Perhaps in the same vein as a creepy serial killer. A reporter? Not a chance. He is a propagandist.

  16. Cuomo, aka “The Butcher of New York”. He does not need a gun to kill thousands of New Yorkers. He can do it with his lying mouth. He was disgusting to see him and his little Brother “Fredo” on CNN (Commi Network News) do a laugh session about the virus. And speaking of Fredo, it was so amusing to watch him preach to all about wearing the mask and then watch video’s of him NOT wearing one when walking into his condo from the street, or not wearing one at all in the Condo’s. Then LIE after being caught and then lying again after a letter from the CONDO ASSOC. issued him a warning to WEAR one.
    These men should both be held in a prison right now. Let’s hope for New Yorkers that he is put down. Way too many deaths. He should have been stopped a long time ago.(obviously)

  17. Like living in “The Big Road Apple”? You got what you wanted and deserve, you voted for that Road Apple, the apple of your degenerate eye. No sympathies here.
    Now sit down and enjoy your road apple pie, stuff your stupid faces and other orifices with what you have created. No sympathies here

  18. All bills and laws not done during the regular hours should be null and void. If anything is done in the dead of night it is already suspect and pushing it through during this time should be criminalized.

  19. Now they want to have the military service members reaffirm their oath to uphold the US Constitution. The Democraps in power should do the same. Do you think they would???? Heck NO!!! They are all for destroying the Constitution and our country. MAGA.

  20. “You figure it out!” Typical ‘progressive’ Democratic sanctimonious arrogance. If ONLY New York voters would FINALLY (once and for all) ‘figure it out’ and stop voting for ‘woke’, self-serving, hegemonic career politicians like Cuomo.

  21. Governor is a Putz. He’s not concerned about the little guy living in New York. If he was, you wouldn’t have the homelessness that you have. Certainly wouldn’t have the crime. And something would be done about the gangs. But he’s of a mind, I’ve got a good cushy job that pays good cash for doing absolutely dick. You’re all on your own. I’d go get a gun if I was y’all.

  22. How can Andrew Cuomo be so stupid while
    his brother Christopher is so smart. Perhaps
    they should just trade jobs with each other.

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