Governor Hochul and State Senator George Borrello issue statements
By Andrew Harris
The news from the US Supreme Court was heard loudly all over New York today, but reaction has been muted. After Chris Jacobs was forced to withdrawl from the new 23rd district Congressional race for simply suggesting he might favor an assault weapons ban, very few politicians have decided speak out and risk infuriating the fellow Republicans or Democrats.
NY State Governor Kathy Hochul, a longtime supporter of both gun rights and reasonable reforms hasn’t minced words since the deadly killings in Buffalo and Uvalde TX:
“As Governor of the State of New York, my number one priority is to keep New Yorkers safe, but today the Supreme Court is sending us backwards in our efforts to protect families and prevent gun violence.”
Hochul: “I’m prepared to call the legislature back into session to deal with this. We’ve been in contact with the leadership. We’re just looking at dates. Everyone wants a little bit of time to digest this, but I will say we are not powerless in this situation. We’re not going to cede our rights that easily. Despite the best efforts of the politicized Supreme Court of the United States of America, we have the power of the pen.”
From Western New York, State Senator George Borrello is singing an entire different tune. Representing a vast Republican majority, Borrello celebrates the ruling and the rare expansion of gun owners rights in the age of mass shootings:
“Today’s ruling by the Supreme Court is a validation of the Second Amendment and a victory for law-abiding gun owners in our state.
Democrats’ continuing infringement on New Yorkers’ constitutional rights under the guise of ‘public safety’ has always been more about exerting government control than truly making our streets safer.
If the governor and legislative majorities were genuinely concerned about public safety, they would target their efforts on the criminals engaging in gun violence and other crimes by repealing their disastrous bail ‘reform’ law.
Yet, they have done the opposite; they have filled our communities with dangerous repeat offenders by passing, and then stubbornly refusing to repeal, bail ‘reform’ and other pro-criminal measures.
In order to truly improve public safety, Democrats must acknowledge and act on the reality that it is the criminals behind the guns – not the guns themselves – that have brought New York to its knees. Their far-left ‘solutions’ have made things immensely worse. “
