Free Republic

New York State is taking new steps in hopes it will stop domestic terrorism and white supremacy. On Tuesday, Gov. Kathy Hochul released guidance for all counties in New York State and New York City. The guidance will support the development of Domestic Terrorism Prevention Plans. New Guidance To Support New York Counties On Domestic Terrorism "In the wake of the horrific domestic terror attack in my hometown of Buffalo, I committed to New Yorkers that we will confront the scourge of domestic terror head-on," Hochul stated. "New York is providing local governments with the tools they need to address...

The New York State Supreme Court last week granted a motion ordering the New York City Police Department (NYPD) to turn over the name, zip codes and license category of anyone who was granted a firearm license in 2018. The New York Daily News made the request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request process, which provides public information from government agencies to citizens and journalists. ... The Daily News argues that the information can be turned over because of a state law – known as the SAFE Act – that declared "that names and addresses of all firearms...

A gun rights rally in Richmond, Virginia attracted thousands on Monday and one Western New Yorker stood out among the rest. Brandon Lewis was a protester at the rally who is getting a lot of attention from national media outlets because of the gun he was carrying. In many photos Lewis is pictured carrying a Barrett M82A1 rifle, which is a semi-automatic rifle that is used by the U.S. military. Lewis told 2 On Your Side that the rifle was meant to send a message. "The citizens are the government and we are in control not the other way around,"...

Since the start of the decade, a million people have moved out of New York. For Andrew Cuomo, that’s not a problem, that’s a victory. It has solidified his party’s hold on power, and it has reshaped the state and its culture in a fashion more congenial to his interests and agenda. ... From the summer of 2017 to the summer of 2018, New York had a net loss in population of more than 48,000. Illinois, another Democrat state, was the second-most abandoned state, with 45,000 net reduction in population. Of the seven other states which had a net loss...

The signs calling for the repeal of New York’s SAFE Act have become a fixture in the landscape of many parts of upstate New York, including the Finger Lakes. Now a western New York congressman is sponsoring legislation he claims would do what so many Second Amendment supporters have called for since the state Legislature adopted it with virtually no public debate in 2013: Repeal the controversial gun-control legislation called Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act, or SAFE Act. Rep. Chris Collins, R-27 of Clarence, said Monday that he is sponsoring legislation called the Second Amendment Guarantee Act, which he...

Don Hall was sitting in his living room watching TV with his girlfriend about 9:30 p.m. earlier this year when he was startled by flashing police car lights in his driveway. Hall met the Oneida County sheriff's deputies in the driveway, worried that they were bringing bad news about a family member. Instead, the deputies produced an official document demanding that Hall, a 70-year-old Vietnam veteran who is a retired pipefitter, turn over his guns to them on the spot. On the document Hall said he was described as "mentally defective." When Hall told police he'd never had any mental...

Last November, the day before the Muslim terrorist attack in Mali that killed 27 innocent civilians, including one American, former Peace Corps volunteer Anita Datar, Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan shot down the idea of a religious test for refugees coming to America at taxpayer expense. Ryan said, "We will not have a religious test, only a security test," before touting his bill, the SAFE ACT of 2015, that allegedly gave extra scrutiny to those “refugees” coming to the U.S. from Syria and Iraq. Paul RyanAs we pointed out at the time, the bill was nothing more than...

Published a year ago on “Coach is Right,” this is a story which bears repeating The left will do anything to abolish the private ownership of firearms. And the emphasis is on anything. After all, politicians cannot safely exercise absolute, uncontested authority over an armed public. And the majority of our nation’s ruling class--yes, Republicans included--yearn for such power; in part because it will bring an end to those annoying constitutional rights which prevent lawmakers implementing what they “know to be best,” but mostly because these self-infatuated mirror-gazers believe dictatorial authority to be their due. The question is, how can...

Carl Paladino is a millionaire slumlord turned failed New York gubernatorial candidate who defaulted on his failed campaign’s debts to staffers, consultants, and vendors to the tune of around $130,000. For many outside of New York, Paladino is not really a household name, so please allow me to introduce Trump’s ‘New York Muscle.’ In Carl Paladino’s world, problems are solved by going upside peoples’ heads with baseball bats. His failed campaign was notorious for his crazy audience shouting out about how we “need you Carl!” and how it’s “the media’s fault!” during his concession speech. Paladino was and currently is...

One New York legislator is proposing some changes to the New York SAFE Act.Based on the fact that two separate minimum wage requirements were recently enacted by the legislature for residents of New York City and the central and upper parts of New York, Assemblyman Marc Butler is proposing that gun legislation be dealt with in the same manner. Most of the arrests and convictions from the New York SAFE Act have come from New York City, Butler says, and he thinks that law enforcement officers in Upstate New York have responded differently to the NY SAFE Act than those...

Guo Shou, 33, is accused of amassing enough deadly weapons and ammo to take on a small army, according to Queens District Attorney Richard Brown. SNIP In total, he was caught with 14 licensed handguns two loaded, licensed shotguns; one licensed rifle; approximately 45,000 rounds of ammunition for a variety of weapons; 225 pounds of smokeless gun powder stored in various containers and open to view; unassembled parts for an AR-10 and AR-15 assault rifles, three high-capacity magazines - one fully loaded with 20 rounds and each capable of holding in excess of ten rounds of .308 caliber ammunition -...

The capital of New York State has joined other cities in restricting the ability for gun owners to store them in their own home. A law has come into effect passed by the City Council requiring all guns to be locked in safes or using a gun lock at home. The police is handing out free locks, but stiff penalties are planned for anyone that does not comply. The Albany Times Union reported on the new law. First offenses will be violations carrying a fine of $250 or up to 15 days in jail so long as no one is...

Gov. Andrew Cuomo claims his anti-gun law, known as the SAFE Act, is "the toughest in the nation," but on its three-year anniversary this Thursday it's looking more like a monumental failure. The governor claims his law bans sales of military-style assault weapons. Yet today you can walk into any gun store in New York and walk out with essentially the same kind of gun he intended to ban. The industry has reacted to the law by simply redesigning the guns to avoid the features the law prohibits and which Cuomo apparently believed made them more lethal. Worse, for those...

Republican politicians have restarted their push to stop Syrian refugees from entering the United States after the FBI announced on Thursday that it had arrested two Iraqi refugees on charges of providing material support to ISIS. "The arrests of these men present a stark warning about the deficiencies of our programs for accepting refugees from Iraq and Syria," Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement on Friday. "Continuing these programs in their current form poses unacceptable risks to our national security that are growing more acute by the day." The House passed...

In 2013, the New York City Police Department began sending notices to certain gun owners using a “…centralized firearms registry which lists the city’s gun owners and what firearms they have in their possession.” The notice referred to firearms prohibited under New York’s “Safe Act,” the law passed (in part) in vengeful retaliation against law abiding owners of so-called “Assault Weapons” for the murders at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. The gun owners were given a simple choice—surrender the now illegally held guns to the police, remove them from the city, destroy them or become a wanted...

Three men who created the infamous SAFE act in New York have been accused of extortion and corruption.  One of them, Sheldon Silver, has been convicted.  The second, former Senate Leader Dean Skelos, is undergoing trial.  The third, Governor Cuomo, has shown up often in testimony, but has not been charged. The charges against Mr. Silver upended the status quo in Albany, and were followed in short order by the indictment of another one of the room’s three men, former Senate Leader Dean Skelos. Mr. Skelos, a Republican, is on trial just across the street from the courthouse where...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has upheld core provisions of the NY Safe Act.

Two people are dead – and two others critically wounded – after a spate of shootings across the city Saturday night, authorities said. The bloodshed began in Brooklyn at about 5:40 p.m. when a 36-year-old man was fatally shot in front of a dry cleaning business on Church Avenue near Ocean Avenue in Flatbush-Ditmas Park. Just over two hours later in the Bronx, gunfire erupted outside of 724 East Tremont Avenue, leaving a 25-year-old man dead and a 34-year-old woman in critical condition.

Last year, 3,000 gun rights supporters arrived in Albany to protest Gov. Andrew Cuomo's anti-gun SAFE Act. It was such a high profile event, that even today's most prolific headline maker, Donald Trump, was in attendance. While the rally was largely peaceful, participants allege that Cuomo's administration ordered state police to bully them. State police harassed attendees and confiscated their replica guns, according to groups like the Shooters Committee on Political Education: SCOPE contends Governor Cuomo and his staff orchestrated rules and regulations that were enforced by troopers in order to intimidate protesters and disrupt their demonstration. "I was there, and it...