State Legislators Against Illegal Guns

[mrreynolds]

On the heels of his sit-down with President Barack Obama yesterday and two days after the Manhattan GOP gave him a clean sweep of the city's Republican committees, Mayor Bloomberg appeared at Gracie Mansion with Democratic state lawmakers to announce the formation of a New York chapter of State Legislators Against Illegal Guns.

More than 50 Democratic state lawmakers have signed up to join the new group the offshoot of Bloomberg's Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

A national version of this legislative organization was launched last year, with Sen. Eric Schneiderman as one of the founding members.

Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith joined Bloomberg for the announcement and thanked the mayor for being a "leader" in the fight to combat gun violence and "return our streets to their rightful owners, the people of New York."

Bloomberg and Smith were once close political allies. Smith was once of a handful of Democrats who crossed party lines in 2005 to endorse the mayor for re-election. Now that he's majority leader, Smith has made it clear his party line-crossing days are over; he is supporting Comptroller Bill Thompson for mayor.

The relationship has cooled considerably since then. The two had a falling out over congestion pricing back before Smith became majority leader, and many members of the Democratic conference were put off by the way Bloomberg treated them during that fight.

They weren't too thrilled with his ongoing support of the Senate Republicans last year, either, although Bloomberg did also endorse and assist a handful of Democratic legislators in 2008 including Sen. Dan Squadron and Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat, both of whom are listed as members of this new group.

Interestingly, Sen. Kevin Parker's name appears on the list.

Bloomberg backed Councilman Simcha Felder in a three-way primary against Parker last fall (Councilman Kendall Stewart was the third candidate). Parker survived that challenge, and went on to sponsor legislation that would require a public referendum on the term limits extension that is enabling Bloomberg to seek re-election this fall.

The legislation moved out of the elections committees in both the Senate and Assembly, but failed to gain sufficient support to go any futher. The deadline for the referendum the first Tuesday in May that was included in the bill passed this week.

The Assembly sponsor of that bill, Hakeem Jeffries, is not listed as a member of the group Bloomberg is announcing today.

Another missing name: Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who hasn't always seen eye-to-eye with the mayor.

The full list appears after the jump.

The founding members of the New York chapter of State Legislators

Against Illegal Guns are:

Senator Eric Adams
Senator Neil Breslin
Senator Thomas Duane
Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson
Senator Craig Johnson
Senator Liz Krueger
Senator Velmanette Montgomery
Senator George Onorato
Senator Suzi Oppenheimer
Senator Kevin Parker
Senator Bill Perkins
Senator Eric Schneiderman
Senator Jose Serrano
Senator Malcolm Smith
Senator Daniel Squadron
Senator Toby Stavisky
Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins
Senator Antoine Thompson
Senator John Sampson

Assemblymember Michael Benjamin
Assemblymember Jonathan L. Bing
Assemblymember James Brennan
Assemblymember Karim Camara
Assemblymember Barbara Clark
Assemblymember William Colton
Assemblymember Steven Cymbrowitz
Assemblymember Jeffrey Dinowitz
Assemblymember Patricia Eddington
Assemblymember Steven Englebright
Assemblymember Adriano Espaillat
Assemblymember Herman D. Farrell
Assemblymember Michael Gianaris
Assemblymember Deborah Glick
Assemblymember Richard Gottfried
Assemblymember Carl Heastie
Assemblymember Earlene Hooper
Assemblymember Sam Hoyt
Assemblymember Ellen Jaffee
Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh
Assemblymember Micah Kellner
Assemblymember David Koon
Assemblymember Charles Lavine
Assemblymember Barbara Lifton
Assemblymember Nettie Mayersohn
Assemblymember Daniel O'Donnell
Assemblymember Amy Paulin
Assemblymember Nick Perry
Assemblymember Audrey Pheffer
Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal
Assemblymember Michelle Schimel
Assemblymember Mark Weprin
Assemblymember Harvey Weisenberg

LINK

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[boscobeans]

Parade of Fools !

bosco

[lance22]

I deleted my own comments ... this is just too stupid.

[shooterX]

I deleted my own comments ... this is just too stupid.

yep!!!

[falcon1]

What does 'Hizzoner" think? That because we support our rights to keep and bear arms, we are for illegal guns?

(And yes, I understand that guns shouldn't be illegal, just criminal uses of them.)

[CRags99]

isn't everyone against illegal guns? sigh.....