Protect Your BB Gun  by Tom Reynolds

For those who don’t vote because “they’re not coming for my gun.”

This past legislative year, two bills were introduced in the New York Legislature concerning BB Guns and Pellet Guns; Senate bill S9215 and the identical Assembly bill, A10701 would change the definition of an “imitation weapon” to include “an air rifle, pellet gun, or ‘B-B’ gun” and redefine “gun industry member” to include makers of “imitation weapons.”

Although the bills don’t address possession, the effect of the amendment to the “imitation weapon” definition is that in order to be lawfully imported, marketed, sold, or distributed in New York State, air rifles, pellet guns, and BB guns would be required to have a closed/plugged barrel.  They would no longer be functional to fire a projectile.

The bills did not make it out of committee.

If you think that’s the end of it…

Now, at the federal level, legislation has been introduced by Kevin Mullin, a California Democrat, which seeks to force Americans to purchase BB guns through a federally licensed firearm dealer and pass a federal background check.

The motivation is because one young man reportedly became psychotic during the pandemic lockdowns. He was barred from purchasing or owning guns, but managed to buy an air rifle and used it to kill himself.

Because of this one crazy person, this bill was introduced. 

Where are the priorities?  Actually, gun control is a priority and this is a step to keep youth unfamiliar with firearms.

Perhaps the priority should be government lockdowns since that triggered the incident.

Protect your BB Gun!   Vote!

__________________________________________

Correction to Monday’s email:

Saritha Komatireddy was born in Brooklyn, not India.  Her parents came to America from India.

But, hey, Brooklyn seems like a foreign country to those of us in Upstate New York!