NY Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal (courtesy assembly.state.ny.us)

“As the gun industry prepares a public campaign to broaden the appeal of guns, it is important that we establish reasonable age limits for admission to gun shows by children. Within New York State and other areas of jurisdiction, we have myriad regulations that seek to protect minors from exposure to certain potentially dangerous situations and influences. For example, a minor is restricted from watching films or playing certain video games that portray deadly weaponry and gunplay. Currently, however, minors of any age may gain unfettered access to a gun show. As our State continues to look for solutions to violence involving guns, we must begin by limiting the exposure of young children to these weapons and their capabilities.” – New York Assemblywoman Linda B. Rosenthal in the Justification section of bill A967-2015

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127 COMMENTS

  1. Boy those politicians must have their budgets wrapped up, crime solved, and all of the other ills of the state solved to go after this.

    Talk about a nanny state. Wow.

    • Lawmaker – one who makes laws. Day after day, year after year. That’s a job description we can do without.

      • It used to be a part time job for successful people, a session of lawmakers used to be only a few months instead of most of the year. They would address actual problems that came up over the last year, not endlessly trying to justify their overinflated salary.

    • This.
      You can see this career politician’s priorities are completely askew. Take for example this telling gem:

      “As our State continues to look for solutions to violence involving guns”

      Um, violence with guns? How about trying to figure out why violence, in general, is occurring in your state and then trying to solve that.

      Hateable, useless, vapid statist. Stop blaming firearms, their law-abiding owners and victims for crimes. Try directing your attention to the people committing crimes. If you really want to be novel, you can then examine the root causes of such criminality. Stop wasting the time and tax dollars of the people of New York.

      • Texsylvanian,

        In the minds of Ms. Rosenthal and her ilk, only the state can solve the ills of society, the state needs to be all-powerful to complete the solutions, and nothing else (such as rights or self-determination) matters.

        In other words Ms. Rosenthal and the rest of the ruling class know what is best for us — therefore we must give everything over to her kind. And everything means everything — our money, work, time, minds, bodies, allegiance, children, etc. etc. etc.

    • A couple of years ago Ginny Simone cornered Michelle Schimmel in her Albany office and she had an “I’m soiling myself look” on her face. This one is WORSE and aka “Twatzilla”.

      Ray

    • Banners gonna ban. It would be easier to try and list the things and practices libturds haven’t tried banning.

      • Yes well at least we can have no mistake when noticing which avenue their agenda will take. The goal is control. The end game is servitude. Little by little every generation will be told that this or that is alright and big brother knows best. Been happening for ages and will continue. Controlling the next generation of voters through surveillance, brainwashing, and misinformation.

        • “Controlling the next generation of voters through surveillance, brainwashing, and misinformation.”

          A good place to drop a plug for homeschooling.

        • JR it’s up to the parents to educate their children about what state schools are and what they’re all about. Good luck convincing a child that guns are evil when dad takes him out shooting every weekend. Unfortunately there are millions of parents that are too dumb to even realize that teachers are (usually) stupid.

      • I think the government as a whole thinks our children are their property. Especially with the way Child “Protective” Services agencies all over the country like to take them from their parents for any reason they see fit, even if they have make up bogus claims to do it. Here in my area of Ohio, ever since the Gravelle case, if they discover you have a dog cage in your house, they have a fit and suggest to get rid of it and your dog.

        • And meanwhile, they are leaving other kids with serial abusers and suggesting “parenting classes” in an attempt to “keep the family unit together”. Admittedly, theirs is a thankless task–but they bring a lot of the thanklessness upon themselves.

  4. “I’m restricted from watching films or playing certain video games that portray deadly gunplay?” asked every single kid with an xbox and broadband internet in NYC.

    • Yyyyeah, she clearly has no idea what she’s talking about. Ten seconds in any online game session and she’d see just how effective those “restrictions” are. Plus, kids don’t have “unfettered access to gun shows.”. I guarantee any kid shows up without a parent or guardian, they aren’t getting in. Her stupidity hurts my head.

      • Define “kid”. 12 year old? Buy a ticket and walk right in. Nothing unusual about seeing an early teen wandering around a show without an adult hovering over them. Hell, some booths have early teen kids working with the parents.

        • I seriously doubt gun shows are allowing unaccompanied minors to buy tickets. If the kids wander off from the parents after they’re in, then that’s a different scenario and is totally on the parents, not the gun show. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.
          Besides, let’s say kids are walking around by themselves…so what? Nobody is going to let them handle guns, let alone sell them one. Her argument is still bunk.

        • Benny, I have no idea what you ‘believe’ living on the Lower East Side. The rest of the country functions, umm, a bit differently…

        • I don’t see how there could be. Isn’t picking a gun off a table to look at it an illegal transfer, not to mention unlawful possession without a handgun permit. Just freaking insanity.

        • This ‘woman’ (and I use the term loosely) represents the west side of Manhattan; where there are obviously no gun shows, so why is she concerned about this? Those upstate who would bring their kids to a gun show don’t need her telling them what to do. I think this proposal is going nowhere, but the upstaters really need to look seriously at secession from the clutches of N.Y.C.

  5. Children are allowed to watch movies and games with violence and adult content, there just has to been a parent present. There are ratings, so parents can choose what content they deem appropriate for their children to view.

    Like most anti arguments, her comparison is facile.

    • “Like most anti arguments, her comparison is facile.”

      I don’t know … this is the same lady who introduced legislation to outlaw de-clawing cats. That there indicates some powerful intellectual faculties. (or not)

        • Yeah, it’s a thing. Some cat owners think that declawing is a horrible practice because–get this–it is not just pain inflicting, it leaves the cat defenseless against dogs. (Hypocrisy much?)

        • Since I can’t reply to Mark, I’ll reply to Alaska. Some cat owners may claim the lack of defense against dogs but the bigger issue is “declawing” is actually amputating up to the first knuckle on each toe leading to further complications for the animal down the road.

  6. And this is another example of why we must continue to refuse to compromise with the antis.

    THEY. WON’T. STOP.

    They’ll take a bit, and then a bit more, and then a bit more, and a bit more, and they will never be satisfied.

  8. This is ridiculous, it is not the state’s job to tell me how to parent, and when it is appropriate to introduce my children to firearms. Especially from someone like New York Assemblywoman Linda B. Rosenthal who wouldn’t know firearms safety or why it’s important to teach your children about firearms at a young age and supervise them. No, we will just make it illegal to expose your kids to guns until they are 18 and then when tragedy strikes and your kid somehow gets into your safe and kills them self or someone else because they didn’t know how to safely handle a firearm they will just push for more restrictions using that tragedy they created.

  9. So, will children be barred from entering grocery/convenience stores that sell alcohol and tobacco?

    How about automobile dealerships?

    For sure, we’ll need to bar children from entering polling places, as well.

  10. Wow. They will do ANYTHING wont they. Because Guns!
    I mean, is this a real problem? are there just tons of ‘children’ running around gun shows unsupervised? IS there a crime wave I have missed that all started because CHILDREN!!!! went to a gun show.

    No. this is about stopping YOUR KIDS from seeing that guns and people of the gun are just normal every day people. And that guns are just tools. Idiots. Maybe we should stop CHILDREN! from going to any party hosted by leftists where adults drink, right? I mean you dont want CHILDREN! to see drinking and thinking its NORMAL!

  11. “a minor is restricted from watching films or playing certain video games that portray deadly weaponry and gunplay”

    Not legally. The restrictions in place at movie theaters and retailers not selling certain media to minors is not enforced by any law, it’s all voluntary policy. Parents are free to bring their children to R rated movies, and buy them violent games without breaking any laws as well. Any time a state tries to pass a law restricting youth access to certain media (I’m looking at you, California), it’s almost always immediately struck down as being unconstitutional.

    Surprise, surprise… She’s from NYC. Gotta love how they need to regulate the rest of the state, for our own good.

    • I’d be cool with the Rated R movie format. No one under 17, or 18 allowed unless accompanied by an adult. Anything above and beyond that is truly asinine.

        • You are correct. Many movies bypass the ratings process altogether. My main point is that I wouldn’t throw too much of a fit if that was the legislation. I believe it’s not necessary, but it wouldn’t raise my blood pressure either. As others have already pointed out though, the spirit of the bill is simply to find any way possible to reduce the number of future shooting enthusiasts.

    • I just bought tickets to “Anthrax-A-Looza” and “Dirty-Bomb-A-Rama” for me and all the neighborhood kids.

    • When everything anyone could ever do is deemed unlawful, and the State can exert complete control of the populace through selective enforcement/prosecution.

      • Heard a bit on the radio….

        There’s the old assertion that “ignorance of the law is no excuse”

        That made perfect sense when the list of laws were essentially implementing some of the 10 commandments and a general idea of “Do no harm”.

        But now the list of laws would probably consume a library full of books stuffed with laws.

        In today’s world it’s makes perfect sense that someone will be ignorant of the law because it’s patently absurd that someone could be aware of all the laws being made daily.

        This will lead to nothing good.

        • Hopefully the radio station you were listening to is out of North Carolina, where a case in front of the Supreme Court said cops can be ignorant of the law. Cop pulled over a car for having a broken taillight, which in some states is reason for harassment or probable cause, but not in North Carolina where only one functioning taillight is required by law. Cop found drugs in the car and the man’s lawyer tried for dismissal of evidence as fruit of the poisonous tree, because no crime was committed except for the illegal search of the drug dealers car. The drug dealer maybe a piece of garbage or someone just trying to feed his family but he is still supposed to be granted a fair trail, which we all know is a lie anymore. Cops and elites can break the law with impunity by claiming ignorance or affluence, while a citizen doing the same has their lives upended financially and maybe ended by the state by imprisonment or as is becoming common practice of just recklessly shooting first . In America we can accept that we are not equal in terms of money but we will not and should not accept Lady Justice to be guided by rabid dogs.

        • Chip, I think in that case the police had the right to pull over a driver with a single broken brake light, they just didn’t have the right to write the driver a ticket. Which reminds me of an early morning New Years day a few years ago when I got pulled over at 1:30am because my license plate lamps had burned out. Fortunately I had spent the last 3 hours sobering up and there was a bitterly cold wind howling so my sobriety wasn’t even questioned. But the moral of the story is that if you’re going to do anything illegal while driving you’d best make sure that there is nothing visible that is not functioning properly on your vehicle. The police have every right to pull you over and tell you that something is broken on your car.

  14. This woman has no idea what the constitution is. The Supreme Court has held that kids have a right, a right I tell you, to play violent video games(Brown v. EMA), and that the state cannot limit kids exposure to shoot-em-up games (the industry can do so, and this is why kids aren’t admitted to R rated movies without parents). Her justification just proved the unconstitutionality of her bill. I can’t wait for the lawsuit on this one.

  15. Land of the free…but maybe not as free as we think. At what point do Americans wake up and realize that the tyranny we overthrew to begin this great experiment is worse now?

  16. While that idea sounds just aweful there are few ways that could make guns seem cooler than they already are : D

    • No kidding. Apparently just looking at guns will turn poor, innocent, malleable children into ice cold killers when they grow up. Is there anything more dangerous in this country than a career politician with too much power?

  18. The people who voted her into office are most likely to ignorant to understand how this is a very bad bill.

      • Those children may see beautiful firearms of exquisite craftsmanship and aspire to own some one day.

        It might motivate them to do well in school so they may get a high-paying job and work long hours to afford them.

        We can’t have that now!

  20. How can a child be exposed to any dangerous weapons at a gun show? We were told the SAFE Act banned all the dangerous guns and only left the approved safe guns for citizens.

    • I live 1300 miles away (roughly) from the southwest corner (where it notches into Pennsylvania), and THAT is too close for comfort. Unfortunately, I’m only a bit over 600 miles from the PRK, also much too close for comfort.

      • Your name suggests that you live in the People’s Republic of Kolorado. I would be nervous, very nervous.

        I was preparing to move to Colorado and then Colorado limited magazine capacity and repealed concealed carry on state college and university campuses. I am no longer moving to Colorado. Rather, I might be moving to one of the seven states where people can carry concealed firearms for self-defense on college campuses and universities without threat of state harassment.

        • You are correct about my location. And yes, you point out our ban on mag transfers (it’s legal to own them so long as they can’t prove you didn’t before 1 July 2013). It’s bad, but it could be a LOT worse.

          However, CC is still legal on university campuses. Although CU is resisting it about like Chitcago does.

  22. Bloomberg Shill Bingo time?
    “Reasonable” “Deadly” “Children” “solutions to violence involving guns”
    You forgot to use “common sense”

    Now on to the quote.
    “As the gun industry prepares a public campaign to broaden the appeal of guns”

    Why haven’t I heard of this?

    “For example, a minor is restricted from watching films or playing certain video games that portray deadly weaponry and gunplay. “

    They are? I thought they were voluntary ratings with no force of law. Hop onto a Call of Duty server, see how long it takes to find a 12 year old.
    I can count on one hand the times I’ve gone to an R-rated movie and NOT seen a minor somewhere in the audience.

    “Currently, however, minors of any age may gain unfettered access to a gun show.”

    SOMETHING MUST BE DONE! You make it sound like a 14 year old can go to a gun show unattended and buy a machinegun without a background check.

    “we must begin by limiting the exposure of young children to these weapons and their capabilities.”

    Why?
    No seriously, why? Can you show me peer vetted research that this sort of exposure is somehow damaging to children or public safety? No you can’t, because all this is textbook hoplophobia.

  23. Interesting. I suppose she never read the justice department study sanctioned by Janet Reno that exposed the lie. The result of the study was that children who grew up in homes with guns were less likely to become involved in gangs. Further, those whose parents were members of the NRA and actively participated with their parents in shooting sports were the LEAST likely to be involved in gangs.

  27. 20+ years ago I was a lifeguard (under payed babysitter) at the park district pool. There would routinely be more than 20 kids per lifeguard, under the age of 12, no parents. About 5 years back a kid actually died in that pool.

    I find it telling that I’ve yet to hear anyone talking about age restrictions on pools, yet more children drown than are killed by unintentional shootings.

    • I was a head lifeguard + pool manager (at an apartment complex with 1200 units), and I set rules. I didn’t require adults to accompany little kids, but I did require big brother or big sister who was “in charge” of them to pass my “how to take care of little ones at the pool” standards. The great thing was that only one parent complained — and the greater thing was that three sets of parents organized a schedule of “deck watchers”, so I ended up with two to four (mostly grandparents) helpers daily, parked in the far corner from our one lifeguard chair.

      After the third day, I gave those volunteers a brief lesson in “how to not make the lifeguard notice you have alcoholic beverages” — they were a great help and very responsible.

      The flip side is that if the city or county or state had decided to come down with such rules, the whole place would have been royally pissed.

  28. I’m very disappointed. She forgot to point out that her proposed restrictions are “simple, common sense measures” intended to accomplish all her BS claims. She hit all the other standard terminology.

  29. I like to think that when my children were children, I fettered them all the time.
    That would be, monitoring their behavior and activities.

    My assumption would be then, that she means that if the STATE is not in charge of your children, they are “unfettered” (loose and uncontrolled).

    Do I have that right?

  30. Both her examples allow for parents to override the ban. Kids can go to R movies with parents and can most certainly play M rated games. Seems to me parents should be able to bring kids to gun shows as well, but hey I’m just a guy who read her quote and came up with the flaw in her logic within 30 sec, not an NY politician.

  31. If these people really want to protect children, teach gun safety in schools. But, of coarse, the left will go into an epic frenzy of butt-hurt at the mere suggestion of it. It’s not teaching kids how to use guns, it’s teaching them “don’t touch it, tell an adult”. When I was in first through third grade, they taught fire and drug safety, which boiled down to “don’t touch it, tell an adult”. I’d suggest Eddy Eagle, but then the left would have to give up on the beliefs (with no real basis in reality, only MDA and Ladd “The down-syndrome potato” Everitt, tell them) that the NRA isn’t really the Booger Man that endorses violence and drinks the blood of slaughtered children.

    • I have taught some of the kids on the block the don’t touch, get an adult message. I also taught the four rules and when they go to the adult I told them to ask the said adult if they know the four rules. No use getting adult who is just as dangeorus handling a gun as an uninstructed 10 year old.

      • + 10k

        That’s always been my worry about “Eddie Eagle”: I’ve known barely-teen Boy Scouts I’d trust with an arsenal more than a lot of adults with even an empty handgun.

  32. There’s an old guy with a white ford F-150 in my town with a bumper sticker on it that says “kids who hunt,fish and trap don’t mug people”.
    Never have truer words been spoken. Don’t tell me how to raise my kid. My three year old is better behaved and well mannered than many ” new aged” kids. I live in upstate NY and the NYC politicians just don’t get it. We don’t want their agenda

    • This is true. A friend who has the same habit I do of trying to help young folks straighten out their lives can afford to equip one a year with basic hunting gear and teaches them to hunt and fish. Those that take to it seem to never show up on the police summary in the paper any more.

  34. Wait they can attempt to ban children from gun shows but they embrace indoctrination of our children with global this global that and other liberal social destruction garbage?

  35. The bill was “referred to economic development”. Hopefully this means the assembly told her to stuff it.

  36. Assemblywoman Linda B. Rosenthal is exactly what I thought she would be. She has no real family of her own (or she hides them I guess), No children, no spouse, she has never held a job that did not involve politics. Never lived anywhere but the ideological ghetto called Manhattan. Her big legislative goals seem to involve banning companion animal tattoos, e cigarettes, light pollution, and taking selfies with Tigers. In other words she lives in the twilight zone.

    • ” banning companion animal tattoos… and taking selfies with Tigers.”

      I am at a loss for words. Are you saying… did she really… what the hell is a ‘companion animal tattoo’ anyway? Selfies with tigers seems to make a little sense, I mean, if we’re banning people from going into the pens with the tigers for said selfie… I suppose.

      • I say don’t ban selfies with tigers, keep allowing dumb people to do as they wish (being get into cages with wild animals) and let the circle of life take is natural course.

  37. “As our State continues to look for solutions to violence involving guns…”

    Really? That’s what this is about? I thought it was about gun/subject control. Consider me learned.

  38. If her proposal doesn’t have the “unless accompanied by parent or adult guardian” biz, I see only two conclusions: (a) it will go absolutely nowhere, or (b) NY state is the world’s largest sheep ranch.

  39. Is a gun show not a peaceable assembly? So banning people due to age would be a 1st ammendment violation; I think?

  40. This is 1:1 out of the anti-tobacco handbook. I’m surprised she managed to change the word “smoking” to “deadly gunplay”.

  41. “As our State continues to look for solutions to violence involving guns, we must begin by limiting the exposure of young children to these weapons and their capabilities.”

    It’s personal empowerment she’s afraid of. That’s what people who want to advance the power of the state over individuals most fear. There are few things in a child’s life more important than building the kind of self confidence that comes from learning about guns, how to shoot straight, handle guns safely, know the value of hunting for one’s own food, and—most important—how to relate to people who also know how to do these things. The very thought of this happening scares the pee out of statists . . . who have to call somebody to change their light-bulbs. This woman is a person who thinks fear and dependency are natural and proper states of being. Seeing what People Of The Gun are like is terrifying for her because we have what she lacks.

  42. She knows damn well kids will still see guns and violence, but only in a negative context (media) thus banning them from seeing guns positively (at a gun show) will make them more likely to grow into ignorant adults scared of firearms and willing to ban them.

  44. This is what we deal with every day here. The NY economy is crumbling….but all you see is feel good social engineering bills coming out of Albany (that’s when they are not stealing us blind). Went after my Assemblycritter about what legislation she created or supported on economic development. Crickets.

  45. Oscar Hammerstein II was right:

    You’ve got to be taught
    To hate and fear,
    You’ve got to be taught
    From year to year,
    It’s got to be drummed
    In your dear little ear
    You’ve got to be carefully taught.

    Are there any among us who can deny that we are in the midst of a culture war?

  46. These people make me want to puke…again. Statist, progressive, liberal…call them what you want, but they are all the same….control-freaks who think they know best and that the .gov is the altar at which you should worship. Only the .gov can provide the great unwashed masses with the salvation they don’t even know they need.
    The only lesson (re) learned from this is that these people will not stop trying to impose their will ‘for the good of the children’ or whatever no matter what. Facts don’t count, the Constitution is irrelevant, and they need to save you from yourself. Never let your guard down…these people can NEVER be trusted…

  47. Damn my dad took us to gun shows when I was a kid(50’s &60’s). Little did I know I was being indoctrinated and would turn into a violent psychopath…

  49. Okay.

    Time to broker a deal.

    Let’s just allow the Democrats of the United States to go home to Canada. It’s obvious they are just the children of the draft dodgers of not so long ago. Let them go home. And so we can reclaim NY, CA, IL, and some other states for the true America it truly is.

    Besides you know Canada will take em.

    • Why not? Canada took all the Tories after the Brits lost the War of Independence. This would just be more of the same.

      BTW NYC was majority Tory during the war. Sounds like not a damn thing has changed there.

  51. ??

    Good thing I don’t live in NY. I just took my 2yr old in a stroller to the gun show not long ago.

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