There is much worry on the Right that the new crop of candidates for public office in New York City will end up undoing much of the good work that Rudy Guiliani started and Michael Bloomberg continued. Yet there is one issue on which this year’s candidates appear to agree with the incumbent: gun control. In an interview with Talking Points Memo, Bill Thompson, “one of the three leading candidates in the New York City mayoral election, discussed how getting guns off the streets is a major priority for him”:
“If you look at his fight against guns, that’s something that has particular meaning in New York City,” Thompson said of current Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “I know it’s been a national fight, but particular meaning in New York City given gun violence in communities of color, in black and Latino communities. We want to see gun use eliminated. It’s cost us too many of our children.”
Not for Thompson the weasley linguistic subterfuge of the past two decades. Instead, the blunt and honest phrase: ”we want to see gun use eliminated.” Even if he we take into account the context in which Thomspon set his words, this was still regarded a sufficiently inflammatory and unusual thing for a political candidate to say that TPM led with it in their headline.
Still, it is difficult to see quite how more restricted New York City could be without inviting a D.C. vs. Heller–style legal challenge. The city already charges well over $400 for a permit to purchase a pistol, requires as standard a stunning amount of effort on the behalf of those who would apply for one, takes over eight months to process applicatons, and allows the police considerable latitude to deny. Concealed-carry is technically available, but in reality permits are only issued to those who already have armed guards — or, at least, can afford them. Gun stores are extremely rare in the city. Moreover, New York City is also subject to the extremely strict rules in New York State.
Thompson is not alone in his extremism. Daniel Squadron, a candidate for public advocate, has gone even further, cutting a gun-control ad with Chuck Schumer in which he touts his work on New York’s disastrous SAFE Act. In the ad, Schumer boasts that Squadron “stood up to” the NRA” 100 percent of the time, authored the legislation that banned “assault weapons,” and voted to limit “high-capacity magazines.” The ad is below:
There are very few parts of the country in which focusing on this issue does a candidate any electoral good. New York City appears to be one of them — at least Bill Thompson and Daniel Squadron had better hope that it is.
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