On October 30, the New York Times reported that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) is joining the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence’s push to hold gun sellers liable for the misuse of guns.
The Brady Campaign first announced this push in 2014, with the launch of their “bad apple” gun dealers campaign—a campaign designed to use “protests, petitions, a code of conduct and lawsuits” to go after gun dealers who fulfill federal requirements by performing background checks on all would-be purchasers, only to have some of the guns they sell used or misused for crime.
According to NYT, Cuomo joined the effort against gun sellers, saying, “The political climate is right again for action. The appetite is there, I think, in the presidential election, especially in the Democratic primary but also in the general election.”
The precise role Cuomo will play has yet to be announced, but the NYT did confirm that “he will be among the chief signatories of a letter to Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch, to be released as early as next week, urging the Justice Department to punish what the Brady Campaign describes as a small fraction of gun dealers who sell an overwhelming share of weapons used to commit crimes.”
Again—these are gun sellers who require every would-be purchaser to pass a background check.
On September 8—less than two weeks after Vester Lee Flanagan’s heinous on-air attack on Virginia reporter Alison Parker—Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) launched a very similar effort via a piece of legislation titled the Responsible Transfer of Firearms Act. According to the Roanoke Times, Kaine’s act “would make gun sellers criminally liable for a bad sale if they didn’t take reasonable, affirmative steps to determine the customer met federal criteria.”
This onslaught against licensed gun sellers is exactly what Democrat presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton is promising to bring against licensed gun dealers if she is elected president. Using HillaryClinton.com, she has already made clear her belief that the majority of gun stores in America have not been inspected enough by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; she claims this is due to the NRA and GOP standing in the way.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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