On March 24 the New York metropolitan area is going to be caught up in “March For Our Lives” protests calling for action to end gun violence and mass shootings. In addition to the main New York City protest, there will be one locally at Farmingdale State College where our Congressman, Tom Suozzi, will be joined across party lines by Republican Congressman Peter King.
While some politicians upstate, in rural areas, oppose gun control, in the wake of the Parkland school shooting it would be easy to assume that our local politicians would support stricter gun control measures, such as the banning of bump stocks which are still legal in New York.
That assumption would be a mistake.
Last week Manhasset’s own state Sen. Elaine Phillips (District 7) joined her fellow Republicans in opposing four amendments that would have banned bump stocks in New York State (S6902), provided more thorough background checks (S5808), created legislation allowing judges to remove guns from those found to be danger to themselves or others (S7133) and created a state Firearm Violence Research Institute (S4363).
Each Republican in the Senate either voted against the appeal or was conveniently not in the chamber at the time as they defeated all four amendments.
If Elaine Phillips will not break with her party on this important issue, will she ever stand up for her constituents?
Elaine Phillips is up for re-election in November.
Charles Maass
Manhasset
Vote them out! Brad Schwartz for State Senator! He was at the Port Washington March for Our Lives yesterday – he’s got my vote!