“These initiatives will give communities the tools they need to effectively fight gun violence and reduce crime,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo [above left] announced yesterday,”making the state a safer and better place to live for all.” Before we examine these austerity-minded initiatives (JK), I’d like to point out that the wordsmiths at nydailynews.com correctly (if unintentionally) called the announcement a “$2 million anti-gun initiative.” Not anti-gun violence. Not anti-crime. Anti-gun. OK, so, the new program focuses on “four strategies for reducing New York’s gun violence” . . .
– Giving $1 million to six communities, including in the Bronx and Manhattan, to work with academics to create new programs.
Run that by me again: academics? What possible role could eggheads play in the reduction of violent crime? And who’s working with these scholarly types? Communities or community organizers? I’m thinking . . .
This smells of a political rescue operation for Operation SNUG (GUNS spelled backwards), the Empire State’s version of Chicago’s Ceasefire. Both programs paid “violence interrupters” (ex-cons) to convince gang bangers not to shoot each other. The program had no metrics for success, no accountability of any sort.
Back in November, Cuomo’s minions cut SNUG’s $4 million budget, casting adrift the ex-cons and their administrative support (of course) at eight urban centers (New York City, Buffalo, Yonkers, Westchester, Albany, Rochester and Syracuse). What’s the bet the “academics” in question are either former SNUGGIES or SNUG-ERAW (AWARE backwards)?
Even if that’s tin hat time. Cuomo’s forking out a mil to eggheads to create new
“anti-gun” programs, so they can spend more money. A grant to create even more expensive new anti-gun programs. How great is that?
– Continuing to fund programs with a record of success, including ones in Harlem and Brooklyn.
Hmm. See above, adding Harlem and Brooklyn to the eight cities where SNUG reduced violent firearm-related crime by . . . an indeterminate amount. Probably close to not at all.
– Launching an anti-gun ad campaign this spring.
There it is again: “anti-gun.” One can only imagine the anti-pistol pathos that’s about to be plastered on the state’s bus shelters and billboards. TV ads with former gang bangers or gang banger survivors tearfully waving the bloody shirt. It’ll be the usual Nike-style stuff: Just Don’t Do It. With one key difference . . .
– Creating a toll-free tip line — 1-855-GUNS-NYS where callers can give the locations of illegal guns.
This is the latest trend in anti-gun crime posturing: drop the dime on people—anonymously—who own illegal guns.
It’s a win for pols, who appear to be doing something about gang violence—I mean “gun crime” without actually doing anything. Actually, that’s not strictly true. The “rat out the other guy on guns” could increase gang violence. One gang squeals on another (without having to pay for the ‘phone call), creating vendettas, which lead to violent retribution.
Given that all the urban areas named in the Gov’s new anti-gun plans are likely to have a SWAT team, the gun reporting program is an ideal solution for New York’s under-utilized (i.e. bored) paramilitary police. You gotta call the flash bang boys in blue, right? We’re talking about bad guys WITH GUNS!
The only people who lose from this program are legal gun owners (who can be plunged into a potentially fatal bureaucratic nightmare by vindictive or (indeed) well-meaning neighbors), taxpayers (‘natch) who have to foot the bill and anyone who doesn’t think America in general and New York in particular should continue its march towards a police state.
“We” may be winning, but gun rights advocates who don’t push back against gun control wherever it rears its ugly head run the risk of seeing their rights rolled back. Maybe not now. But eventually. And that’s the truth.
I’ve got a great program for stopping gun crime. It’s called the CMP. When all law abiding citizens take an active interest in stopping crime and treating guns as tools in that fight against crime….
Oh screw it, nobody that isn’t already convinced is listening.
– Creating a toll-free tip line — 1-855-GUNS-NYS where callers can give the locations of illegal guns.
This is the latest trend in anti-gun crime posturing: drop the dime on people—anonymously—who own ( legal ) guns.
The possibilities for all of this are endless. We will now have SWAT raids on everybody!
– Giving $1 million to six communities, including in the Bronx and Manhattan, to work with academics to create new programs.
Oh come on, the faculty and staff at the Universities would love this!
S.N.U.G. rhymes with T.H.U.G.: The Chicago Way.
wordsmiths at nydailynews.com correctly (if unintentionally) called the announcement a “$2 million anti-gun initiative.”
Hey, at least they were honest on that topic.
I think the snitch line is more likely to ensnare law abiding people who were given or inherited handguns, and “didn’t get around” to registering them as required by NYS and NYC law.
Criminals locked up instead of on parole tend to be disarmed. Can I have my million dollars for coming up with that idea now?
The cost of keeping criminals incarcerated is extremely expensive. Talking about it is much cheaper.
So at least they’re saving taxpayers’ money.
*cue a cheezy commercial jingle*
1-855-GUNS- NYS
“Got a boyfriend who won’t sell his AK to pay for your wedding ring?Never fear,just give the government a ring and we’ll seize it today!”
“Jealous of that neighbor with his AR15 and ammo stash?Don’t call the competition;the ATF takes months to seize a gun.Give NYS a call and well disarm your neighbors within 7 days or your tax dollars back!For a limited time only,you can receive a free Democratic Party Pin if anyone we arrest is a Republican Party Member!”
1-855-GUNS-NYS:Because the UN takes too long.
See now, any sane, rational person would see that guns have been straight-up illegal in NYC for quite a long time and making them illegaler isn’t going to do anything. It’s like speeding; you can oppress drivers and create all the “programs” you want, but people will never obey the speed limit at all times. This is just further posturing by wannabe-tyrants who either A) want to appear like they’re doing something, or B) are truly insane by thinking the repetition of failure will yield different results.
New York City truly is a “city of the world,” for it’s definitely not American. Taking the taxpayers’ money to fund programs to help further oppress them. Yup, sounds like liberal paradise to me. New Yorkers get what they deserve, I hope they continue to get mugged and assaulted until common sense gets beaten into them.
By the way, am I nuts, or is there a tiny smiley face at the bottom of the page?
By the way, am I nuts, or is there a tiny smiley face at the bottom of the page?
Yeah, there is on the mobile version. Not clickable or anything… just there… smiling at me…
am I nuts, or is there a tiny smiley face at the bottom of the page?
Are the two options mutually exclusive?
Oh good. So, crime won’t be affected, at all, and a few innocent people will get hit with a few dozen rounds of SWATitude. Great.
The real fun will be what happens when some idiot calls this hotline to report someone legally carrying, which does happen occasionally in this stupid state.
Clearly the Newark Stasi-esque approach is contagious.
I fear & fight the ramifications of big-state, big-city politics and policies. I love the (relative) freedom & calm of small-state, rural living.
Sweat not, gunnies. The rathole of New York’s politics can swallow billions without a hiccup. The two million will disappear faster than a soap bubble, leaving nothing behind.
I thought that there was no such thing as an illegal firearm. There are only people who can’t legally own firearms or certian types of firearms.
He’s screwed pensions of state employees yet to him it seemed like a great time to give him self a raise. Now this? Albany and NYC are every bit as corrupt as Chicago. I only got a month left till I move to Florida.
I’d like to see him put his money where his mouth is and release the armed State Patrol officers assigned to protect him, move out of the mansion and into a real NY neighborhood, like Brooklyn, and take public transportation to work.
These initiatives aren’t designed to do much more than create greater separation and animosity between gun owners and anti-gun owners. The idea behind “1-855-GUNS-NYS” may seem like a good one on paper, and if the firearms are indeed illegal, then they SHOULD be reported. But what if they aren’t? What if law-abiding citizens are being reported to 1-855-GUNS-NYS by antis who are simply bent on getting rid of guns? I don’t know if throwing good money after bad is the best solution, but I’m sure the people “in charge”… the ones who have been elected to serve OUR best interests (and who are a lot smarter than I am) will figure it out.
Hey, here’s an idea… why not create an incentive program with all that money that rewards gun owners for turning in some of their firearms? It gives THEM the choice whether to do so or not, but it doesn’t (and shouldn’t) punish others for keeping their firearms… a right that is upheld by our Constitution.
Like I said, there are smarter people working on this issue. I just think programs like 1-855-GUNS-NYS create more problems than solutions.
Nothing like necroing a year old post. But hey, I’ll play. The problem with both the call-in idea and your turn-in idea is that I’m not interested in paying for it. In their idea, tax dollars pay for people to snitch on their neighbors. In your idea, tax dollars pay for people to turn in guns that are then destroyed. You are quite literally burning money. I don’t live in NY, so it’s not my tax dollars, but I’m still opposed to burning money.
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