Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Politics, Society, Supreme Court

Federal Court Strikes Down Another Provision of New York’s New Gun Control Law

I have previously written about how New York has proven time and time again as the gift that keeps on giving for the National Rifle Association (NRA) and gun-rights groups. New York Democrats continue to pass laws that are virtually guaranteed to be struck down and further reinforce Second Amendment rights. The latest provision involves the possible criminal prosecution for possessing a gun on private property if the owner has not approved such possession on the premises.

New York Democrats have passed a series of laws that led to catastrophic losses in federal court, including the recent major ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen. This includes openly gaming litigation to the irritation of individual justices.

After each loss, the same politicians circle the firing squad again and pass the next round of questionable gun limits. New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul promised such legislation within an hour of the release of Bruen.  It passed with the help of a special session in the resumption of this inexorable cycle and has already resulted in court losses. Now there is a new such ruling against the law.

In New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n, Inc. v. Bruen, 142 S. Ct. 2111 (2022), the Supreme Court rejected the prior New York law under the Second Amendment to publicly carry firearms for self-defense. The Court held that New York’s “proper cause” licensing regime unconstitutionally infringed this right. New York responded roughly a week later with Senate Bill S51001 (June 30, 2022, Extraordinary Session). The new law created a target rich environment for new challenges.

The new decision comes from Judge John Sinatra (W.D.N.Y.) in Christian v. Nigrelli: where the court ruled that the private property exclusion violates the Second Amendment.

The state might have been able to reinforce an important right of private business owners to exclude guns with a reasonable drafting of the law. Instead, it sought to use the issue to effectively ban guns from “sensitive” and privately owned areas.

Gov. Kathy Hochul again made the case against her own state in ill-considered comments where she proclaimed that S51001 “makes ‘no carry’ the default for private property” by “establish[ing] that private property owners must expressly allow a person to possess a firearm, rifle, or shotgun on their property[.]” That default is the problem.

The provision at issue is § 265.01-d:

Criminal possession of a weapon in a restricted location.

1. A person is guilty of criminal possession of a weapon in a
restricted location when such person possesses a firearm, rifle, or shotgun and enters into or remains on or in private property where such person knows or reasonably should know that the owner or lessee of such property has not permitted such possession by clear and conspicuous signage indicating that the carrying of firearms, rifles, or shotguns on their property is permitted or has otherwise given express consent.

Plaintiff Brett Christian complained that he is:

“unable to carry firearms on his person throughout the State because of S51001’s designation of private property, even private property open to the public, as “restricted locations.” Christian Dec. ¶¶ 10, 11. Christian brings his firearm with him on private property open to the public, such as weekly visits to gas stations and monthly visits to hardware stores. Christian Dec. ¶ 10. He intended to continue to do so, but for the enactment and enforcement of S51001. Christian Dec. ¶ 10. Moreover, since S51001 bars even “entering” these locations, Plaintiff will need to disable and store his firearms before driving his vehicle or walking into parking lots, which means in some instances, Plaintiff will need to stop carrying for selfdefense before he can get physically close enough to see if any “clear and conspicuous signage” Case 1:22-cv-00695-JLS Document 19-1 Filed 09/28/22 Page 14 of 30 10 exists permitting him to carry. Christian Dec. ¶ 11. Not only does this put Plaintiff at risk of uncomfortable situations with passersby observing him disable and store his firearms, but the fact he has to constantly disarm greatly reduces his ability to defend himself throughout the State. Christian Dec. ¶¶ 11, 12.”

The court found a sufficient injury and a substantial likelihood of prevailing on the constitutional violation.

“In sum, the vast majority of land in New York is held privately, and it encompasses homes, stores, businesses, factories, vacant land, hotels, parking lots and garages, grocery stores, pharmacies, medical offices, hospitals, cemeteries, malls, sports and entertainment venues, and so on. These are places that people exercising their rights, frequent every day when they move around outside their homes. The exclusion here makes all of these places presumptively off limits, backed up the by the threat of prison. The Nation’s historical traditions have not  countenanced such an incursion into the right to keep and bear arms across all varieties of private property spread across the land. The right to self-defense is no less important and no less recognized on private property.”

Unfortunately, there is no evidence that New York is committed to ending its historical use of a circular firing squad on Second Amendment rights. Hochul used the law to rally support from voters despite this likely outcome. It is all crushingly predictable. Hochul won the election and yet another provision in the law was found unconstitutional. As a result, New Yorkers have once again strengthened Second Amendment precedent in support of gun rights.

Here is the opinion granting the preliminary injunction: Christian v. Nigrelli

149 thoughts on “Federal Court Strikes Down Another Provision of New York’s New Gun Control Law”

  2. OT: Rejected, spoiled ballots at Maricopa County vote centers mishandled, election observers allege

    https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/rejected-spoiled-ballots-maricopa-county-vote-centers-allegedly?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

    =====

    Yet the Democrat supervisor of elections that according to the media won by a couple of votes refused to be recused from her position.

    What should be considered? The Democrats cheated and the supervisor should be investigated.

    1. Arizona’s AG agrees, Maricopa county broke Arizona’s voting laws and will probably get away with it without suffering any penalties. Question now is: Does the AG have the cojones to bring charges against the election supervisor and take a case to the legislature to get the results re-counted and overturned if that’s the end result? Doubtful to unlikely.

      1. The problems in Maricopa county in all likelhood can not be fixed by Recount.

        We have listened to those on the left rant about “voter supression” – what is emerging is a very bad instance of ACTUAL voter supression.

        It is unclear at this point whether that will the result of complete incompetence,
        or willful willful fraud.

        It MIGHT not ever be possible to tell.

        What we do know – is that contra to election day claims the On Demand Ballot printers were not failing in about 1/4 of locations, but in 2/3 of locations.

        The overwhelming majority of Maricopa county ODP’s were printing blank ballots that were too light for ballot scanners.

        The consequences of this were very signficant. It massively slowed in person voting.
        Some ODP ballots scanned correctly the first try.
        Some the 2nd. Many failed 6 or more times.
        Large numbers were discarded with voters trying again.
        That had problems of its own – as once a voter “logged in” to the system to print an On Demand Ballot, they were blocked from voting anywhere else or any other way.

        In person voters were not REQUIRED to use the ODP system. The System was purportedly an IMPROVEMENT to voting – those on the left LOVE to “improve” voting, failing to grasp that adding complexity in return for convenience always introduces more fraud and failure.

        Voters in Maricopa County were all FREE to go to the precint in which they resided – where they would receive a preprinted ballot listing the correct candidates for THAT precinct, and they would have had no problems scanning those ballots.

        But for the “convenience” of voters, Maricopa County made it possible for voters to go to ANY precinct on election day and print the ballot that was correct for THEIR precinct.
        All sounds good. And BTW this was purportedly all extensively tested the day prior to the election.

        Regardless, once a voter went to a precinct other than the one they resided in – They were screwed.
        They were stuck with the ODP system in that precinct. If there ballot did not scan correctly. they were still listed as having voted and could only vote provisionally elsewhere.

        We have no idea how many people came to vote, failed and gave up.

        It is entirely possible that this is all just an example of innocent incompetence.
        Regardless, there is no means to fix this short of a new election. Recounts will not correct for voters that voted, but could not get their ballots counted and gave up.

        But claims of incompetence smell like rotting fish when the result is the election to higher office of the person responible for competently running the election.

        Nor is imcompetence and error the only plausible explanation.
        It is quite plausible that the OD Ballot printers were deliberately sabataged to print ballots too light to reliably scan.
        It is possible that can be proven. It is more likely that we will not be able to tell wheterh this was incompetence or deliberate fraud.

        REGARDLESS. there is only one actual remedy – it is not Recount.
        It is to invalidate the entire election, and to hold it again in a manner where neither incompetence nor fraud can effect the outcome.

        I highly doubt that will occur.

        Just as we have an actual real instance of criminal voter intimidation by the NM SOS who is now the governor elect.
        And nothing will come of that either.

        1. Indeed. It’s been a mess there for at least two election cycles now. What’s the solution if the AZ legislature refuses to get involved and write clear, concise voting laws for the entire state and remedies for failure to implement/abide by them? They’re looking more like Keystone Kops as time passes. Their constituents deserve better.

          1. If Hobbs wins the governorship – which is likely the Legislature can not fix AZ elections.

            What is the solution ?

            Win by more than the margin of fraud.
            Wait until democrats get caught.
            Sit back and watch as democrats self destruct on their own.

            These are not good choices.
            They are the choices we have.

        2. Convenience foods.
          Convenient shopping.
          Convenient voting.
          Etc. Etc
          Inconvenient Truths, like…

          We’re sacrificing our country on the altar of convenience.

    2. “Well, who ya gonna believe me or your [lyin’] eyes?”

      – Chicolini, Duck Soup
      __________________

      KARIZONA

      The Arizona Secretary of State conducts elections.

      The Arizona Secretary of State is Katie Hobbs.

      The Arizona Secretary of State, Katie Hobbs, just won the election.
      _____________________________________________________

      “That dudn’t make any sense.”

      – George W. Bush
      ______________

      NCSL National Conference of State Legislatures

      Voting Recusal Provisions

      Arizona

      “Any public officer or employee of a public agency who has, or whose relative has, a substantial interest in any contract, sale, purchase or service to such public agency or a decision of a public agency shall make known that interest in the official records of such public agency and shall refrain from voting upon or otherwise participating in any manner as an officer or employee in the matter. Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 38-503.”
      ____________________________________________

      Nope, no conflict of interest or appearance of a conflict of interest in Karizona, right, comrades?

  3. New York is only going to get more and more blue because all the sane people are leaving for Florida and Texas. The saving grace will be that like California the state will have fewer representatives in Washington. Forming a circular firing squad is an expensive proposition. Surely the money could be better spent on stopping the New York crime wave. Just a thought.

    1. Thinkitthrough says:
      New York is only going to get more and more blue because all the sane people are leaving for Florida and Texas.

      Personally I think it’s fine for them to visit a week or two but I fear they’ll bring their political baggage with them if they stayed longer. You can’t get away from those entrenched political beliefs that caused your problems in the first place.

    1. It’s not American freedom, it’s the antithetical, actionably unconstitutional governmental control of communism, the “dictatorship of the proletariat,” in the form of:

      Matriculation affirmative action, grade-inflation affirmative action, employment affirmative action, quotas, welfare, food stamps, minimum wage, rent control, social services, forced busing, public housing, utility subsidies, WIC, SNAP, TANF, HAMP, HARP, TARP, HHS, HUD, EPA, Depts. of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Labor, Energy, Obamacare, Social Security, Social Security Disability, Social Security Supplemental Income, Medicare, Medicaid, “Fair Housing” laws, “Non-Discrimination” laws, etc.

      The entire, communist, American welfare state is demonstrably and irrefutably unconstitutional.

        1. As support for your eminently appropriate admonition and undeniably brilliant position, are you conjuring the “brevity” of a Congressional or District, Circuit or Supreme Court decision, the birthplace and home of your “brevity,” Einstein?

          Dobbs is 213 pages.

          Oh, and thank you so much for reading; I do so appreciate it, as that which is written is nothing if not read, right?

          1. No admonition on my part implied or intended. My comment to you was from an episode of Boston Common (tv show) in the 90’s where the main character’s sister was dreading, for more than a week, an upcoming essay test in school. On the day of the test, she took her seat in class, opened the test material, and read the one and only question, “The key to communication is…”

            She looked at the instructor with one of those sideways looks, then finished in less than five seconds (fully completing the question) and turned in her paper. The other students sat around dumbfounded and confused as to why she finished the test so quickly. Afterwards, she learned she was the only student in the class to get an “A” on the test for her one-word response, “…brevity.”

            Happy Thanksgiving, George.

  5. See, it’s easy.

    2nd Amendment

    A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
    _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    OT

    Kevin the “Bumpkin From Bakersfield” and Head RINO McCarthy wants Mayorkas to resign (the “Bumpkin” should have begun the impeachment process already).

    What about Joke Biden, the Boarder Czar Harris, Merrick Garland and Chrissy Wray and the Department of Gestapo, “Lil Pet” Butt Gauge, and the very “Woke” Lloyd James Austin III, how noble, et al.?

  6. This is not a circular firing squad.

    To be clear, the Dems know exactly what they are doing and why they are doing it.

    This is a plan to implement a death of thousand cuts.
    Each of these laws will take time to wander thru the courts and even though they know that the courts will strike them down… it causes a delay and uncertainty for those who are pro 2A.

    This is nothing new. Its been their plan in NY and in other states like IL.

    -G

  7. The Democrats will continue to challenge court decisions against them because the legal fees are paid by the tax payer. Start holding them personally accountable ($) on the failed decisions and watch it all stop.

    If NY worked as hard taking criminals off the street as they work to keep guns from legal gun owners there might not be a need for gun carry permits?

    1. Did you see this item? George Soros bankrolled Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney is in the news for all of the wrong reasons

      Missteps plague top Norfolk prosecutor: Ramin Fatehi under scrutiny for mishandled cases, rejected plea deals
      https://www.pilotonline.com/government/local/vp-nw-commonwealths-attorney-fatehi-20221119-6hi2k6py35hcphukxy2avrxocu-story.html

      As I’ve said in the past, poverty does not cause crime. It’s not “externalities” but rather morally bankrupt parents. This guy, Ramin Fatehi, is a Marxist, plain and simple.

      The old-fashioned view about public safety was not taking into account externalities. It was focused on the idea of crime as an evil unto itself. Where I part ways is in recognizing that crime is a symptom. It’s a symptom of structural racism, of systematic community disinvestment, of redlining, unequal school policy, the lack of jobs, lack of transportation, a lack of opportunities, intergenerational barriers to wealth building, the disinvestment in the treatment of the mentally ill—all of these things are really what produced the symptoms, but then we as prosecutors are charged with essentially trying to deal with it, and then are blamed also when they perhaps increase or decrease.
      – Ramin Fatehi

      https://theappeal.org/politicalreport/norfolk-elects-prosecutor-who-says-crime-is-a-symptom-of-structural-racism/

      1. Democrat’s can SAY whatever they want. They can argue whatever they want.

        In the end they must succeed.

        You claim that Fatehi is logically and historically wrong – and I beleive you are right.

        But voters may not follow the arguments.

        What the will follow is rising crime and violence.

        In the 60’s 70’s and 80’s – Republicans successfully made an issue of crime and violence.

        The response from Democrats was “MeToo” – Joe Biden was one of the leading crime fighting democrats.

        Today with Rising violent crime – democrats are making the huge mistake of trying to pretend there is no problem.

        That is a recipe for disaster.

        Separately, I think that left wing nut DA’s are a SMALL factor in rising crime.
        There are several other related but more important factors.
        The war on policing is a major factor.

        As I noted in another post – imprisoning Chauvin was a HUGE mistake.
        That sent a message to police accross the country – back down, be less agressive.
        Step away. No one has your back. Retire or change how you police.
        That is a bigger factor.

        The next major factor is Covid. Covid has massively disrupted society.
        Even though the pandemic is allegedly over, the damage to social fabric remains.

        The government response and its failure has sewn mistrust, and introduced chaos.

        Beyond Covid – democrats are litterally and deliberately increasing chaos – within the country and without.

        As Emanuel noted – never let a crisis go to waste. Instablity and chaos give democrats more power to act.
        But they also amplify violence.

        Even increases in random acts of psycholtic violence by nut jobs – are NOT the result of right wing words, they are the consequence of the chaos that democrats are actively creating.

        Chaos increases violence.
        And worse it increases the pleas for a strong man to take over and fix it all.

  9. They don’t care if they lose in court. They will just pass another law which will be enforceable until it too is overturned. Then they’ll pas another one.

    NY had the chance to end this by electing Zeldin. They chose not to and this is the result.

    The Democrats nationally are the same. Their unconstitutional legislation and executive orders over the past two years have included:

    Allocating economic benefits based on race;

    The rent payment moratorium;

    Vaccine mandates;

    Coal power plant regulation; and

    Student loan forgiveness.

    These were not violations of APA procedure, such as failure to consider various factors, but substantive violations.

    And that’s only what courts have decided thus far.

    The lawlessness of Democrats in power exceeds anything we saw under Trump.

  10. Meanwhile, in Hochul’s NY, the subway isn’t safe (and not because of guns), drugs are rampant, and criminal gangs run loose. But Hochul and the delusional Democrats keep going after law-abiding citizens because they believe most gun owners are conservatives. This is an ideological battle. Democrats are wasting the peoples’ time and money chasing the wrong demographic.

  11. The bigger problem is law enforcment. For example the alleged shooter in the recent gay nightclub attack threatened to blow up his mother’s house last year. Even though he was arrested, it appears that no action was taken agasinst him.
    “The assault raised questions about why authorities did not seek to take Aldrich’s guns away from him in 2021, when he was arrested after his mother reported he threatened her with a homemade bomb and other weapons. Though authorities at the time said no explosives were found, gun-control advocates have asked why police didn’t use Colorado’s “red flag” laws to seize the weapons his mother says he had. There’s no public record prosecutors ever moved forward with felony kidnapping and menacing charges against Aldrich.”
    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/colorado-springs-mass-shooting-suspect-anderson-lee-aldrich-changed-name-teenager-records/
    I believe it has also been reported that an earlier name change obscured searches of his past. Authorities need to try harder to protect the public!

    1. Exactly. Same situation in Illinois with the rooftop sniper. Plenty of red flags before the shooting, gobs of Red Flag laws on the books in Illinois, yet no enforcement which lead to the shooter being allowed to legally purchase at least two rifles and one handgun. Why bother blustering about needing more laws if they’re not going to be enforced?

    2. @edward,
      err… not that simple.
      He’s arrested but I suspect that the mother didn’t want to press charges and she backed down.
      No court case, no conviction, no reason to take guns.

      If you look at the Red Flag laws… the state would have no reason to take the guns.
      (What? Lose 2A rights while what you did was potentially protected 1A speech? )

      And no, the name change was explained that he was bullied as a kid and wanted to get away from that.
      (I suspect its because of his dad that he was bullied.)

      What’s the expression? “it is better 100 guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer.” – Ben Franklin.
      (I looked it up.)

      -G

    2. My incomparable wife says these spoonerisms are not a sign of exceeding intelligence “…or everybody would talk that way.”

      My wife’s a woman.

      I love my wife, I just love my wife.

  13. “Lawfare” was not invented by blue state democrats, it was stolen from the Chinese as a why to use our rights against us. Why am I not surprised. They will keep coming up with more phony laws until she is threatened with petsonal civil penalties for exploiting her party’s low intellect.

  14. Thank you NY National Socialist Democrats for continuing to strengthen the 2nd Amendment.

    Of course you know what “shall not” means. We the People will not surrender guns regardless of any court ruling. My Rights come from the Creator or as Joe Biden would say “the thing”.

    What terrifies National Socialist Democrats is they understand “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun” to quote Mao Zedong.

    National Socialist WOKE Democrats understand the Remedy for tyranny is the 2nd Amendment.

    J6 was NOT a Insurrection “We the People” didn’t come with guns.

  15. What a sweet gig for wannabe tyrants. You can sign unconstitutional laws without any concern of harm to your career. Why not keep trying? Can’t get the laws you want? Just grab your pen and phone and make it happen.

    Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

    1. Because of the enormous cesspool of NYC and the few blue upstate urban dumps like Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, and Albany, the entirely red remainder of the state cannot obliterate this prog/left dumb*ass stain. It may be a gift to the NRA but it is h*ll on earth for most of the state that are not parasites on the government in one way or another.

      1. Alma, while I don’t disagree with your assessment, I would say progressives of all stripes have brought us to this point. Citizens are at a major disadvantage when it comes to fighting against government abuse of power. The distance between the enactment of unconstitutional laws and/or executive orders and SCOTUS begins with the prospect of enormous personal costs to the citizen, all the while the government’s army of attorneys have an abundance of resources provided by the very taxpayers suing the government. That’s insane. Even when a clearly unconstitutional law is passed, I don’t believe it can be challenged in court until someone has standing to bring suit. Do I have the correct?

        The playing field needs to be leveled. It’s apparently not enough for individuals to only risk getting voted out of office. Why are individuals that vote for and enforce unconstitutional laws effectively immune from liability, but a citizen can be incarcerated and bankrupted fighting against the unconstitutional laws? There should be financial penalties to individuals in the legislature and the executive that sign their name to unconstitutional laws. Have a 3 strikes law that will remove someone from office after their 3rd law or order is ruled unconstitutional.

        Something needs to be done differently than what we have right now.

          1. I forgot about the pensions.
            Strike 1: 25% cut in pension and voting power
            Strike 2: 50% cut in pension and voting power. No committee assignments.
            Strike 3: Removal from public office for life and no pension.

            That might encourage them to “read the bill” before they vote. They lose voting power and their constituents will want to replace them anyway.

        2. The left represents government authority over the individual and utilizes it in an abusive way. There is no way to stop them today, except by removing their power from the Presidency down to the dog catcher. Do not vote for any Democrats even if they seem reasonable. That adds power to the leftist anti-American illiberal. The Democrat Party of today needs to be destroyed so that the former Democrat Party of JFK and Pat Moynahan can replace them.

          1. Agreed. Before that can happen though, Team Red must contest elections where they’re polling far ahead – and expected to win – the day before election day then barely lose, supposedly, in the days and weeks afterwards. Until then, no amount of not voting for Democrats will give anyone the tiniest amount of hope things will get better. Today’s Republicans lack the will to investigate their own losses and refuse any self-reflection when they support weak candidates…candidates that seemingly threaten their own power or standing on the Hill.

            1. I am disappointed in the 2022 Election.

              Further I think that Fraud is likely a significant factor.
              The difference between an overwhelming GOP victory and a pretty bad smack-down is only a couple of hundred thousands votes accross the country. In fact – if we eliminate PA – where PA voters somehow elected a zombie, There is probably less than 100K votes accross the US between huge success and failure.

              This alone should cause EVERYONE to care more about election integrity.
              It also should cause us to think more about our elections and election process.

              For more than two decades we have a rapidly increasing number of razor thin election contests.
              This is a recipe for disaster. It is a recipe for mistrust.
              It is the circumstnace in which election integrity MUST be beyond reproach.

              I have been fighting to improve elections since 2000.

              Absolutely no election integrity measures at all are required – if one candidate wins and election by a margin well beyond any plausible fraud.

              We do not conduct election challenges over 60:40 elections.
              Increasingly we have fewer and fewer of those.

              One “principle” that should be true REGARDLESS of who wins a close election is that there is no mandate.
              Whether the republican or democrat wins a razor thin election, the winner has not received the authority from voters to implement new policies.

              Next, while there are many reasons to beleive that Democrats and the left are engaged insignificant election malfeasance,
              and to be disappoited by this election. It is STILL true that this election – like ALL recent elections is a GIANT flasshing warning sign to democrats.

              Democrats won only 1 age cohort – those 30 and below.
              The only additional group of consequence they lost was single women.

              The results of this election – like that of 2020 required many many many things to go right for Democrats.
              It required young people to vote. Something that until 2020 has not ever significantly happened.
              While Mailin voting has empowered the couch potato vote, there is no certainty that without making every single election into the most important election of all time, that democrats can continue to “get out the vote”.

              Democrats can not win – without fraud, without control of the election process, without a favorable press. Without ever increasing Hitleresque rhetoric.

              They are becoming more shrill and more demagogic.

              Convesely Republicans have a single consequential problem regarding future elections.
              Trump has brought out about 6-8M voters that have not reliably voted before.
              And those voters are very loyal to Trump and without Trump – atleast for now, they are highly likely to sit out elections.

              Permanently earning those voters is critical to the future of the GOP.

              And that is what is wrong with Barr, and Ryan, and McConnell and the “moderate” republicans trying to use this election to unseat Trump.

              Unlike many Trump supporters – I do not consider these people “disloyal” Rhino’s. They reflect a legitimate position inside the GOP.
              But McCain and Romney, and Kaisich and …. have all had their chance – they are all absolutely capable of winning statewide elections in their states. And should be respected for that. All states in this country are NOT Florida. Republicans ultimately need to be competitive in NY and WA, and OR – and it is not likely that Kari Lake or Marjorie Taylor Green are going to win those states.

              At the same time – Republicans will NOT win the house and the senate and the Whitehouse without the strong support of MAGA voters.

              Both of these are givens, and Trump, and Ryan and Barr and DeSantis and …. all need to come to terms with that.

              Even this election shows Republicans GAINING with voters – particularly minority voters, on issues, and within demographics.

              The results of individual races may be disappointing to republicans, but the actual voices of voters and the changes in the electorate should be encouraging.

              Every single tactic that Democrats are currently using to win elections – legitimate or not, will eventually fail.

              It will either fail because the republican base keeps growing sufficiently that democratic tactics are insufficient.
              Or they will fail because they will get caught.

              I know about as much about what is going on in Maricopa county right now as any – and I do not know much.
              Regardless it is an embarrasing mess – and the stench falls entirely on Hobbs and democrats.

              It does not matter whether they Maricope county election was fraudulent, or just highly incompetent.
              It is a disaster nonetheless.

              It could well be fraud – and if it is, like 2020 there may not be enough evidence beyond the stink to prove it.
              But it also could be fraud that gets caught.

              My understanding is the AZ AG for elections is agressively investigating and has blocked the certification of the election and has the power to do so.

              Maybe nothing will come of this. But lets assume the worst for democrats – that evidence emerges that either Election officials knew there were problems with the OnDemand Ballot printers and choose to ignore them, or that the settings on the printers appear to have been deliberately altered to print too lite ?

              What if finger prints are found for a small number of people inside the ballot printers ?
              Or settings on the printers are found to have been changed after the printers were tested ?

              There are dozens of possible “what ifs”.

              And to be clear – regardless of whether there was fraud – proof to sufficient certainty may never exist.
              Even if nothing can be proven – the alternative – the “defense” of democrats is incompetence.
              That is not a good place to be.

              Regardless – it is self evident that in 2020 and 2022 Democrats “beat the odds”
              That is not infinitely repeatable.
              If there is fraud – it will eventually surface.

              I would note that the Sam Harris – by any means necessary remarks are a watershed – not because his remarks influenced alot of people directly.
              But because a man who is essentially a well respected – even by my., left leaning moral philosopher said out loud that he would do whatever it took to defeat Trump and republicans. Once you are prepared to “do whatever it takes” – you will eventually be caught – doing whatever it takes.
              That is inevitable.

              Finally the last argument I have is that Democrats are and always have been their own worst enemies.

              In 2021 I was cautioning Republicans against being too optomistic. Biden had the wind at his back and had to really F#$K up bad to not be a successful president. Biden has been a complete disaster. And the very best news for Republicans after the election is that he plans on changing nothing.

              The forecast by “the experts”, voters, nearly everyone is Biden no longer has a breeze at his back – he is heading into a full force gale.

              I have little hope the next 2 years will go well for democrats – or the country, or the world – and a very large portion of the blame for that – and unusually large portion rests with Biden. It is very rare that the US president is not merely so clearly responsible for the decline of the country, but that of the world. About the only place that is going to h311 that Biden bears no culpability is China.

              There is no good news on the economic horizon. The war in Ukraine is going well – and that scares the schiff out of us all as Ukraine success increases the risk of global nuclear war.

              And I would note that though the under 30 crowd went strongly democrat, there is no cohort in this country that is more “antiwar”
              AOC has twice faced hostile townhalls from her own woke constituents over her backing of military spending in Ukraine.

                1. It was only a joke, Obama did not really mean it.
                  People in charge of elections don’t tilt things a little in their favor.

                  I have no doubt that given the oportunity there are republican political operatives who would commit election fraud.
                  I have no doubt that in every election a bit of Republican election fraud occurs.

                  But Republicans tend not to have the oportunity to commit large scale fraud with low probability of getting caught that democrats do.
                  Why ? Because republicans have not controlled a large city in 40 years, and it is typically only in cities that you have thousands or millions of votes being processed by small numbers of people.

                  In my precinct there are about half a dozen election officials. There are about 6000 votes each election.
                  A corrupt election official could flip a close school board election. But more than 100+ votes and they will get caught.

                  The difficulty of fraud increased exponentially with scale and with the number of people involved.

                  Significant GOP fraud would require too many people

              2. Bill O’Reillyy said it best. I’ve never seen people vote against their own self interest like this last election.

    2. “What a sweet gig for wannabe tyrants.”

      Stay vigilant. They’ll be back — with a new “emergency,” freshly concocted “creative” language, and original rationalizations.

    3. “It’s the [Supreme Court], stupid!”

      – James Carville
      _____________

      “Unconstitutional laws” must have been struck down immediately and contemporaneously over the past 220, and certainly, the past 150 years under the sworn-oath duty of Justices to support the Constitution, and the doctrine of Judicial Review .

      The Supreme Court correctly struck down wholly unconstitutional Roe v. Wade after 50 years of negligence, as it waited for a “case.”

      There was no need; there was only persistent and corrupt support for a high-criminal, corrupt and irrefutably unconstitutional “decision.”

      The has been no requirement for the Supreme Court to hesitate since Marbury v. Madison, 1803, which was certified more recently by the Justice Dept.

      To wit,

      “Judicial Review in the United States”

      “The legitimacy of judicial review and the judge’s approach to judicial review are discussed.”

      Abstract

      “The doctrine of judicial review holds that the courts are vested with the authority to determine the legitimacy of the acts of the executive and the legislative branches of government.”

      – DOJ, Office of Justice Programs
      ___________________________

      The singular American failure has been and continues to be the Supreme Court.

  16. God Bless New York Liberal Democrats who are a gift that keeps on giving to the advancement of and clarification of “The Rights of the People….shall not be infringed upon!”.

    I applaud their good work in promoting the Second Amendment!

    Well Done, Ya’ll…..Good on Ya!

    Keep up the good work and while you are at it…..Appeal the Case to the US Supreme Court so we can see this made Nationwide!

  17. You get what you vote for or don’t vote for. Such is the nature of majority rule and the curse and blight upon society of the low information voter.

  18. Hochul is to gun restrictions what Cuomo was to Senior Housing and safety in a pandemic. The left/media will tell her and us that she is doing a fantastic job as the situation crumbles around her.

    Sorry New Yorkers, you voted for her and the rest of us really don’t feel sorry for you. In fact we thank you because due to morons like Hochul we will have greater protections regarding the right to carry guns in self-defense.

    1. She won by 5%.
      Now that sounds like a big number.
      But consider that is the closest the Dems have come to losing the governor’s race in quite sometime.

      The fact they keep doubling down on passing these laws that keep getting struck down, and thereby reinforcing gun rights is a facepalm.

      1. The fact that in States where National Socialist Democrat Party continue to have problems with dishonesty at the polls at some point We the People may choose to vote with the ammo box instead of the ballot box.

        We have a Remedy.

        1. Indeed. It’s been used successfully in the past. Not sure why Lefty’s don’t see it will be used again, against them, if they continue down their current path.

      2. Perhaps too many Republicans instead of voting with their ballot, voted with their feet and moved to Florida. Then again, I question if all those New Yorkers that moved to Florida voted Republican in NY, would Hochul have won by 5%, no matter what?

    2. I do feel sorry for the vast amount of NY State outside of NYC who essentially have no say in how their state is run.

    3. If not for Blue NYC, she would have lost in a landslide, though. Can’t blame upstate New Yorkers for having an idiot governor any more than blaming non-LA and SF residents for installing their idiot govern-moreandmoreandmore in Sacramento.

      1. Jafo and others, you are right, I do feel bad for all the people in NY that don’t live in the city and do vote the right way. However, the voters need to do a better job of electing people that aren’t insane leftists and the upstate and other people need to get more people to the polls to counter the insane city.

        As for the folks of NYC, I have trouble feeling for them as their taxes go up, their heating bills rise, crime rises and restrictions get more and more onerous.

        As for the comment about voters leaving for FL, the point is valid. It would have been better if DeSantis won by 15% instead of 20% and Zeldin edged out Hochul by 1%. But as a transplant to FL myself, late of MA, I am glad that the folks moving to FL are voting the right way. I saw the folks from MA ruin elections in NH by moving up there and then voting the same way as they did in MA. It is what is happening with the idiots leaving CA and IL for AZ.

        1. Upstaters have a longer hill to climb simply because of numbers. How do you do overcome Blue precincts reporting 127% voter turnout for their candidate with 0% for the other guy?

          1. Install an Electoral College style system in the many States….using Counties instead of States as done on the Federal Level.

            That would level the playing field where large population centers can not out vote the rural areas merely by numbers of popular votes.

            Cut Early Voting down to the period Friday through Tuesday preceding Election Day on Tuesday.

            Eliminate Mail In Voting…..return to the old fashioned system of having to request an Absentee Ballot and have witnesses to your signatures on the request for the ballot and on the ballot envelope itself….and require a one hundred percent check of the signatures against Voter Registration forms for both the Voter and the Witness.

            Use paper ballots and provide the voter a hard copy of the processed Ballot….and add that to the Voter’s Voting Record and make it searchable by the Voter by means of an online system.

            1. Except for the addition to the Voter’s record and making it searchable online, the rest is a good start. I’d add… label political advertising with disclaimers at the beginning that say, “The following is a big steaming pile of shineola. If you vote based on what you see and hear in this load, you deserve what you get.”

            2. There are many means to improve the trust and integrity of our elections.

              Your proposal is one.
              It is an improvement, but it is not that good a choice.

              There are TWO core principles that will lead to elections that can be trusted.

              The First is KISS – “Keep it Simple Stupid.”
              99.99% of all voting should be ONE Way.
              Every single option you add to voting increases complexity exponentially, and increases the opoprtunity for fraud.

              Many many voting measures that SOUND good, are ultimately very bad.

              We are seeing that with the On Demand Ballot printers in Maricopa county.

              The NEXT important principle is that the process should be “bottom up”

              Whether in a rural or urban area – people should vote, and their votes be counted in SMALL precincts of approximately the same size.

              The BIG problem with Cities is that the results of counting a million ballots in a convention center will NEVER have the same trust as counting 15,000 in a precinct.

              In theory top down solutions are more efficient – though in practice inside government the opposite is ALWAYS true.
              Top Down solutions are slightly more immune to small scale fraud – it is easier to flip a school board race by Fraud in a 15,000 voter precinct.
              But they are vastly easier to impliment large scale fraud.

              There is never serious chain of custody issues when voting is on election day, and ballots never leave the precinct in which the vote and count occur. Further every single precinct of 15,000 voters should be able to count their votes in very close to the same amount of time.
              We will not have half the vote counted by midnight and the other half a week later.
              Delays in counts are NOT proof of fraud, but they are absolutely giant red flags.
              The likelyhood of catching fraud is exponentially greater the greater the fraud must be. The easier it is for those engaging in Fraud to inject the minimum necescary ballots to get the results they want, the harder it is to catch them.

              So if you want maximum trust in an election:

              Voters may only vote in person with ID on election day at the precinct in which they reside, all precincts within a state must include the same number of voters, and all ballots in a precinct must be counted in that precinct. Ballots must be preprinted by the state – before election day,
              with technical measure similar to those of currency to preclude forgery. Every ballot must have a unique serial number,
              There must be chain of custody not only for all ballots – both blanks before the election, and voted and unused ballots after the election.
              The number of voters and ballots must be reconciled at each precinct, and no precincts talies should be accepted where the number of votes exceeds the number of voters.

              There is no feasable means of voting where fraud is impossible. But something close to the above is the best you can do.

              There is no means of voting that included multiple options that can ever be made secure.

              It is possible to have mailin voting that is better than we currently have.
              It is NOT possible to have mailin voting AND other forms concurrently without substantial oportunity for Fraud.
              It is not possible to have mailin voting where ballots are handled by anyone other than the voter without the oportunity for large scale fraud.

              If you want Mailin voting – it must be 100% mailin voting – Ballots must be mailed to voters and returned – only by mail or in person at election offices. You can not have drop boxes, Further you would have to bar political parties from contact with voters at their homes while ballots are out – otherwise you have political operatives literally in the voting booth with voters.

              Regardless, you can NEVER secure mailin voting to the extent you can in person voting.
              you can not prevent parents, or children or spouses from controling the voting of family members. And even if you control political parties – you can not prevent friends and neighbors from influencing voters.

              We tend to forget that the US has through the 20th century had not just in person voting – but SECRET BALLOT voting.
              Ballots never leave the direct oversight of election officials.
              And the polls provide a PRIVATE place where each of us can vote – where NO ONE can influence our vote.

              We are doing much more than making voting more convenient.
              We are abandoning the secret ballot voting process that was designed specifically to precule the wide spread election fraud that preceded it.

        2. I think they do the best they can by electing sheriffs who pledge to not enforce Unconstitutional laws. It’s really their only line of defense.

          1. That covers county/parish laws but doesn’t prevent the feds from running roughshod over them or anyone else. Olly’s right – it’s much harder to defend against lawless state and fed political types when they have access to unlimited taxpayer money. Hell, they don’t even need ‘probable cause’ to stir up trouble against their perceived political enemies anywhere anymore, or so it seems. It’s still a good start and changing the status quo does have to start somewhere.

          2. The way to get rid of bad laws is to vigorously enforce them – not to ignore them.

            Further the rule of law actually requires the enforcement even of bad laws.

            I do not want Sherriffs choosing not to enforce unconstitutional gun laws, any more than I want DHS choosing not to enforce immigration laws.

          3. “I think they do the best they can by electing sheriffs who pledge to not enforce Unconstitutional laws.”

            Which illustrates a primary motivation behind the “defund” movement. They are not against law enforcement, per se. Thay want to eradicate law enforcement that they cannot control (e.g., sheriffs). They want law enforcement who will blindly execute their diktats.

  19. That annoying Constitution sure does seem to be regularly getting in the way of the Democrats agenda. Maybe the Democrats should just propose to get rid of that annoying 18th century piece of parchment and scrub it from existence, after all, it’s just a quaint anecdote of an archaic history infringing upon Democrat’s pure as the driven snow agendas.

  20. What is striking is the contempt that lefties show for the rule of law.

    Whether NY’s gun laws or Biden with student loans, the default position is to violate inconvenient laws.

    Yet at the same time, lefties ring us in with increasingly strict laws that are harshly enforced.

    1. We are a lawless Nation fraught with Laws.

      For exactly the reason you describe….the Radical Left only wish they could do away with the Constitution…..and in time if left undefeated, utterly defeated, shall do that very thing.

      Then with out any doubt whatsoever…..this great experiment ends in complete failure.

    2. If you notice, most dims are lawyers. Lawyers work in gray areas or they try to split hairs.

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