New York’s Anti-Gun Fervor Reaches A New Height

Not content with enacting some of the most stringent anti-gun laws in the country and abusing its regulatory power by browbeating insurance carriers to not do business with the NRA, New York has launched a new broadside against the Second Amendment.  In a move that should set off alarm bells with privacy advocates everywhere and with anyone who uses or has used social media, legislation has been introduced in the state legislature that would force residents seeking to either purchase a rifle or a shotgun from a lawful dealer, or seeking to obtain or renew a pistol permit, to surrender to law enforcement access to their social media history along with their use of internet search engines for the previous three years.  

This monstrosity of a bill undermines not only an individual’s Second Amendment rights, but those guaranteed by the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments as well.   State Sen. Kevin Parker, a Democrat from Brooklyn, is the proud sponsor of the legislation.  And, knowing that a majority of his colleagues in the legislature have in the past demonstrated as little regard for constitutional rights as Parker when it comes to the Second Amendment, his bill could very well find its way to Gov. Cuomo’s desk, where it would be gleefully signed into law.

In Parker’s view of things, invading a person’s privacy as his bill would do, apparently is a reasonable response to the tragic shooting at a Pittsburgh Synagogue in October.  The reality is that Parker’s idea is nowhere close to reasonable or constitutional.