Law Firm: New York Matching Up Private Health Records With Gun Permits to Confiscate Firearms

Amazing, isn't it? The Aurora, Colorado movie shooter was on all sorts of prescription medications, warned his psychiatrist of violent fantasies and even left her a notebook. That book remains sealed. The defense has argued, successfully thus far, that it is not evidence because it "is part of doctor-patient privileged communication".

Yet, according to New York's Tresmond law firm, some of that state's law enforcement agencies are dipping into private medical records for the purposes of gun confiscation:

John Doe, an upstanding professional with no outstanding criminal convictions and no history of violent action received a letter from the Pistol Permit Department informing him that his license was immediately revoked upon information that he was seeing a therapist for anxiety and had been prescribed an anxiety drug. He was never suicidal, never violent, and has no criminal history. The New York State Department of Health is apparently conducting a search of medical records to determine who is being treated for anxiety drugs and using this as a basis for handgun license revocation.

I would like to add that the police departments are demanding that whomever turns in a pistol also turn in accessories for that pistol such as magazines, despite the fact that these magazines are not firearms themselves and anyone can purpose a magazine without a pistol license. Even more troubling was the fact that the police officer taking custody of the pistols cheerily informed the client that "the department" would be destroying his pistols if they were not retrieved within one year. When she was questioned as to what he should do should he choose to sell the pistols out of state, given that he has a property right to the monetary value of the gun, she became confused, her expressions changed to perplexed, and she made a referral to another officer.

Those are the facts. Nothing more, nothing less. (Signed, Max Tresmond)

Aside from being clearly unconstitutional and a violation of all standards for professional medical ethics, New York's actions seem entirely above board.

Which reminds me: in Missouri, of all places, the Department of Revenue, which issues concealed carry permits, may have been caught transmitting private information on permit holders to DHS.

Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder held a press conference to announce his involvement in an attempt to stop the Missouri Department of Revenue (DOR) from transmitting ... private data to the Federal Government. The data transmission was discovered after ... Missouri resident Eric Griffin’s concealed carry permit was denied when he refused to let the DOR scan and transmit his private data...

According to Lt. Gov. Kinder, this information is not only being turned over to [the federal government], but also to a private agency in another state. Both actions are specifically prohibited by State Law...

This case has issues of statewide importance implicating serious privacy concerns for law-abiding citizens. These folks have followed the letter of the law and been approved for concealed carry by the proper authorities. They must not be required to share that information with any third parties or the federal government.

In my opinion, this is just another example of why gun registration is a very dangerous thing to allow. Nowhere in the Constitution are we required to register our weapons, or apply for any sort of permit to carry them. In fact, the second Amendment itself should be our conceal carry permit.

The Orwellian nature of this Missouri program highlights our need to be vigilant when it comes to suggestions of further gun registrations and legislation. The farther we allow them to go down this road, the easier it becomes for them to implement their ultimate agenda of gun confiscation.

Put simply: gun registration is gun confiscation. It must be rejected.

Also, if you are a New Yorker and need legal advice, Max Tresnmond indicates he can be contacted at info@tresmondlaw.com. Full disclosure: I don't know the man and I can't vouch for his services, but he may be a place to start.


Hat tip: BadBlue Guns.

TYRANNY: New Yorker faces three years in jail for drawing 'unlicensed gun' on home invader

How much more of this lawless insanity will New Yorkers tolerate?

There’s no Jessica’s Law in New York. Child pedophiles get shorter sentences than this...

But if you are George Bardwil and you are trying to protect yourself and your home, you face three years in jail because [your] gun was ‘unlicensed.’ George Bardwil allegedly pulled a .40-cal. Sig Sauer on the burglar. Without firing any shots, the burglar ran away like a little coward and Bardwil saved his home and himself. So what’s his reward? Possibly three years in jail.

###

Man faces 3 years in jail for pulling ‘unlicensed’ gun on burglar inside his home

A Manhattan millionaire faces three years in jail for drawing an unlicensed gun on a burglar inside his home.

George Bardwil, who owns linen company Bardwil Home, was in his E Street apartment when an intruder came into his home in January... Bardwil, 60, threatened the intruder with a loaded .40 cal Sig Sauer. The man fled and Mr. Bardwil called the police.

After showing the cops footage from his home surveillance cameras, they arrested him under suspicions of owning an illegal firearm... “There’s no dispute that George was being burglarized,” [his lawyer] said. “George had been the victim of multiple burglaries, and the DA’s office concedes that it was used in self defense.”

How many lawyers, politicians, judges and media hacks does it take to understand the Second Amendment?

"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

Silver Creek Man Becomes First Victim of Andrew Cuomo's Unconstitutional New York Gun Ban

Dear New York Governor Andrew Cuomo:

The Supreme Court has spoken. The recent Heller decision (thank you, Ted Cruz) made clear that "the sorts of weapons protected [by the Second Amendment are] those in common use."

In light of the fact that only 4 million AR-15 variants are in circulation, please consider "Silver Creek man becomes first arrest under new gun laws":

A Chautauqua County man appears to be the first person arrested under New York’s new gun-control law, charged with selling newly banned assault-style weapons to an undercover police officer... Benjamin M. Wassell, 32, of Silver Creek, was accused of twice selling weapons now prohibited under the New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act, according to State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

If Wassell is convicted of the felonies, he faces a possible prison sentence of seven years.


“By selling these illegal firearms, Mr. Wassell’s actions had potentially dangerous consequences for New Yorkers,” said Schneiderman, whose office conducted the joint investigation with the State Police. “We have seen far too much gun violence in our state in recent months, and the sale of illegal semiautomatic weapons will not go unpunished."

Schneiderman’s office believes the arrest is the first in the state since the gun-control legislation was passed two months ago... The gun is considered a banned weapon now in New York, and selling it is a Class D felony, because it had several military features, including a pistol grip, telescoping butt stock and bayonet mount.

I glean from recent emails that many Americans' patience with those who violate the Constitution on a daily basis is wearing thin.


Hat tip: BB.

Motivational Poster for Governor Cuomo

This:



Hat tips: Op-For and ISHO.

LOVE IT: Six Firearms Manufacturers Tell New York to Get Stuffed

Six companies have thus far informed New York officials that they will not sell goods to any police or government organizations in the state.

• LaRue Tactical
• Olympic Arms
• Extreme Firepower
• Templar Custom
• York Arms
• Cheaper than Dirt

[We join in the calls] for all American gun owners to pressure Sig Sauer, Smith and Wesson and Glock to shut off sales to government agencies in New York State.

If you know executives in any of these companies, email them directly. If not, we’ve got some email addresses below for you... Keep it short and sweet. Long missives will not be read, so save your time for constructive endeavors.

Here’s a suggested message, tweaking on GRNC’s suggested message: We don’t live in a police state: If it can’t be sold to citizens, it won't be sold to State and local government.

Emails: publicsafetysales@sigsauer.com, dgrier@smith-wesson.com, LE.info@glock.us

The despicable, petty, half-pint tyrants of New York -- deeply flawed men like Andrew Cuomo and Michael Bloomberg -- are protected 24 hours a day by men with guns. But they want to deny you from enjoying those very same rights; the rights granted to us by God and codified in the nation's highest law!

Gun control isn't about guns. It's about control. And people like Bloomberg, who wake up each day with new ways to steal more and more of your liberty -- from salt, 16-ounce sodas, prescription painkillers and styrofoam cups, to name but a few -- are truly detestable.

It's high time everyone concerned with saving America steps up to the plate. For that reason alone, I salute these six companies. Make sure you give them your support and business.


Hat tip: BadBlue Guns.

NBER: Yep, Bill Clinton, Andrew Cuomo, and Janet Reno Were Directly Responsible for the 2008 Mortgage Meltdown

Any careful and honest analysis puts the blame for the 2008 financial crisis on Bill Clinton and his sycophants who implemented the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). The National Bureau for Economic Research (NBER) just put the final nail in the coffin.

Democrats and the media insist the Community Reinvestment Act, the anti-redlining law beefed up by President Clinton, had nothing to do with the subprime mortgage crisis and recession... But a new study by the respected National Bureau of Economic Research finds, "Yes, it did. We find that adherence to that act led to riskier lending by banks."

Added NBER: "There is a clear pattern of increased defaults for loans made by these banks in quarters around the (CRA) exam. Moreover, the effects are larger for loans made within CRA tracts," or predominantly low-income and minority areas.

To satisfy CRA examiners, "flexible" lending by large banks rose an average 5% and those loans defaulted about 15% more often... The strongest link between CRA lending and defaults took place in the runup to the crisis — 2004 to 2006 — when banks rapidly sold CRA mortgages for securitization by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and Wall Street.

CRA regulations are at the core of Fannie's and Freddie's so-called affordable housing mission. In the early 1990s, a Democrat Congress gave HUD the authority to set and enforce (through fines) CRA-grade loan quotas at Fannie and Freddie... It passed a law requiring the government-backed agencies to "assist insured depository institutions to meet their obligations under the (CRA)." The goal was to help banks meet lending quotas by buying their CRA loans.
But they had to loosen underwriting standards to do it. And that's what they did.

"We want your CRA loans because they help us meet our housing goals," Fannie Vice Chair Jamie Gorelick beseeched lenders gathered at a banking conference in 2000, just after HUD hiked the mortgage giant's affordable housing quotas to 50% and pressed it to buy more CRA-eligible loans to help meet those new targets. "We will buy them from your portfolios or package them into securities."

She described "CRA-friendly products" as mortgages with less than "3% down" and "flexible underwriting." ... From 2001-2007, Fannie and Freddie bought roughly half of all CRA home loans, most carrying subprime features.

...Obama officials, who are cracking the CRA whip anew against banks, insist the law played no role in the mortgage meltdown... While the 1977 law was passed 30 years before the crisis, it underwent a major overhaul just 10 years earlier. Starting in 1995, banks were measured on their use of innovative and flexible" lending standards, which included reduced down payments and credit requirements.

Banks that didn't meet Clinton's tough new numerical lending targets were denied merger plans, among other penalties. CRA shakedown groups like Acorn held hostage the merger plans of banks like Citibank and Washington Mutual until they pledged more loans to credit-poor minorities... WaMu CEO Kerry Killinger has blamed the CRA for his bank's overexposure to risky loans. He said he wanted to tighten lending requirements, but "such measures would have presented other issues such as the company's CRA rating and its commitment to serving its (low-income and minority) customers and communities."

President Obama, in his younger days, was an attorney for Acorn and party to a lawsuit against Citibank. He, too, had a direct hand in triggering the mortgage meltdown.

JUST PERFECT: Cuomo and his Statist Oath-Breakers Don't Even Know Which Guns They've Banned

Bob Owens explains:

In 30 pictures describing “pistols that are not assault weapons,” the NY SAFE web site incorrectly identifies 6 of 30 handguns presented by name, and 16 of 30 by type.

...NY SAFE serially confuses a rifle’s caliber with its model, and worse, can’t tell the basic difference between a rifle and a shotgun...

...or tell the difference between a weapons that are legal, yet function identically as “evil assault weapons”...

...… and we’re supposed to take them seriously? It would be laughable, other than the fact that if you mistake the NY SAFE Act web site a being a competent guide, you could end up in prison for violating the NY SAFE Act since the Web site and the actual law have very little in common...

And these are the masterminds who think they can prevent psychopaths from committing violent acts through unconstitutional restrictions on law-abiding citizens?

No wonder New Yorkers -- in huge numbers -- say they will defy this flatly unlawful idiocy.

Perhaps Mayor Bloomberg and the rest of the elites should disarm first, just to show the citizens how it's done.


Hat tip: BadBlue Guns.

NEW YORKERS TO ANDREW CUOMO: Molon Labe

It would appear that many New Yorkers -- including some law enforcement officials -- are prepared to tell Governor Andrew Cuomo and his merry band of Statists to stuff their unconstitutional gun ban.

After Democrats in New York rammed a sweeping assault on the right to keep and bear arms through the legislature that failed to exempt police officers from the draconian restrictions, gun owners and even some lawmakers are planning what has been dubbed potentially the largest act of civil disobedience in state history. According to news reports, gun rights activists are urging everyone to defy far-left Governor Andrew Cuomo’s new registration mandate while daring authorities to “come and take it.”...

...Preparations are already being made for mass resistance. “I’ve heard from hundreds of people that they’re prepared to defy the law, and that number will be magnified by the thousands, by the tens of thousands, when the registration deadline comes,’’ said President Brian Olesen with American Shooters Supply, among the biggest gun dealers in the state, in an interview with the New York Post."

Lawlessness, after all, begets lawlessness.

[The Post] quotes a Cuomo administration official admitting, "Many of these assault-rifle owners aren’t going to register; we realize that." Which means that state officials were merely posturing rather than entirely ignorant of history when they penned the law and jammed it through. As I've written before, gun laws traditionally breed massive levels of non-compliance — even in places where you might think people have no strong history of personal arms, or of resistance to the state, When Germany imposed gun registration in 1972, the country's officials managed to get paperwork on all of 3.2 million firearms out of an estimated 17-20 million guns in civilian hands. Californians may have registered as many as ten percent of the "assault weapons" they owned when that state imposed registration in 1990 (though the New York Times put the figure rather lower, at about 7,000 out of an estimated 300,000 guns covered by the law).

The reason for such reticence isn't hard to fathom. When gun owners charge that politicians can't be trusted to resist using registration lists for future confiscation, they're not being paranoid — New York City and California have both done just that.

Political officials might want to consider those experiences, as well as a recent poll finding two-thirds of Americans willing to defy tighter gun restrictions, before setting themselves up for public demonstrations of their impotence in the face of mass defiance.

The Left's hatred of the Bill of Rights -- represented in this case by Andrew Cuomo -- is one reason why iOwnTheWorld's Molon Labe T-shirts are selling like hotcakes on a cold winter morning. And why AR-15 mags have a year's worth of back-orders.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

INFOGRAPHIC: Gun facts you'll never see in laughingstock media

Via TheGunMag:

NY STATE ASSEMBLYMAN SOUNDS THE ALARM: Democrats' First Gun Bill Ordered Confiscation of Firearms!

I wonder how many Ruby Ridge incidents this blatant attack on the Constitution would have touched off? New York State Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin explains:

Here it is. This is the video where I was asked to keep the Democrat proposals for the NY SAFE Act away from the public. This list was given to me by a colleague and it is not confidential.

This bill was an attack on the 2nd amendment and the Democrats clearly wanted to dismantle the work of the Founding Fathers. None of these amendments were included in the final bill thanks to us fighting back. I will not stand silent while these unpatriotic proposals are pathetically thrown at us a 11 o’clock at night:

1. Confiscation of "assault weapons"
2. Confiscation [of] ten round clips
3. Statewide database for ALL Guns
4. Continue to allow pistol permit holder's information to be [revealed] to the public
5. Label semiautomatic shotguns with more than 5 rounds or pistol grips as "assault weapons”
6. Limit the number of rounds in a magazine to 5 and confiscation and forfeiture of banned magazines
7. Limit possession to no more than two (2) magazines
8. Limit purchase of guns to one gun per person per month
9. Require re-licensing of all pistol permit owners
10. Require renewal of all pistol permits every five years
11. State issued pistol permits
12. Micro-stamping of all guns in New York State
13. Require licensing of all gun ammo dealers
14. Mandatory locking of guns at home
15. Fee for licensing, registering weapons

We know precisely what Democrats want: they seek to confiscate all firearms from law-abiding citizens, leaving only the state (and criminals) with a monopoly on force. These people are precisely the would-be tyrants our Founders feared, and on whom they placed explicit constraints as they designed the Constitution.

These Democrats are your prototypical, power-hungry elitists who despise the very citizenry they purport to serve.

They want to label certain things "assault weapons"?

Well, here it is: I'm labeling every current member of the Democrat Party an assault weapon on the Constitution.


Hat tips: The Mental Recession and BadBlue News Service.

BEHOLD THE WISDOM OF DEMOCRATS: Gun Control Explained!

Sooper Mexican reveals all.

Don't know about you, but I feel much safer now.

YEA, GOVERNOR CUOMO! GUN CONTROL IS WORKING! Tourist, 24, brutally beaten with tire irons, bats in NYC

Thank goodness concealed carry is forbidden in New York City! Otherwise, law-abiding citizens could have come to the aid of a tourist who was being beaten within an inch of his life. And golly gee, isn't it great that a tourist licensed in another state can't be trusted to safely carry in New York?

And thank heavens for the governor's creation of a human hunting preserve in New York, where innocents are easy prey for criminals.

A tourist from Massachusetts was recovering at a New York City hospital after being brutally beaten by a gang of seven young men armed with a tire iron and a baseball bat, police today revealed.

Kevin McCarron, 24, from Andover, was battered and stomped unconscious by the men after an argument in the trendy Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan early Sunday... An onlooker captured horrific cell phone video of the attack, showing several young men kicking the victim on the ground.

...McCarron is seen struggling to stand as the group of thugs pummel hims with kicks and punches. At least one of the men is armed with an aluminum baseball bat, which he raises to batter the helpless victim.

Hatem Farsakh, 24, is charged with gang assault, assault and attempted murder.
Police also arrested Sherif Rizk, 22, also of Brooklyn, in connection with the case.

Militant Quakers are to blame, no doubt.

Yea, Governor Cuomo! I feel safer already!


Hat tip: I Hate the Media.

AN OPEN LETTER TO MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN NEW YORK LAW ENFORCEMENT: An Unconstitutional Law Ain't a Law

Norton v. Shelby County - 118 U.S. 425 (1886):

"An unconstitutional act is not a law; it confers no rights; it imposes no duties; it affords no protection; it creates no office; it is in legal contemplation as inoperative as though it had never been passed."

To my brothers and sisters serving in New York law enforcement:

Without public input from stakeholders, without any review from voters, and without discussion in a single public forum, the governor of New York and the state legislature slammed into place one of the nation's most restrictive gun laws yesterday.

The new laws classify more semiautomatic rifles as so-called assault weapons [thereby banning them], requires many gun owners to renew their licenses every five years, increases the regularity of background checks and makes it illegal to own ammunition magazines with more than seven rounds... Some gun-control advocates said the legislation gave New York the nation's most stringent firearms laws.

In fact, this law not only violates the Constitution's Second Amendment, the Supreme Court confirmed that fact just a handful of years ago when it ruled the District of Columbia's gun ban was unlawful.

In 2007, a panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the city's gun ban was unconstitutional. Senior Judge Laurence H. Silberman wrote in the majority opinion that "the black market for handguns in the District is so strong that handguns are readily available (probably at little premium) to criminals. It is asserted, therefore that the D.C. gun control laws irrationally prevent only law abiding citizens from owning handguns."

The ruling was affirmed the following year by the Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller. Justice Antonin Scalia's majority opinion said that citizens were guaranteed a right to keep firearms that were in common use in their homes for self-defense, but that the government could pass reasonable regulations concerning firearms and ammunition.

...Since the gun ban was struck down, murders in the District have steadily gone down, from 186 in 2008 to 88 in 2012, the lowest number since the law was enacted in 1976. The decline resulted from a variety of factors, but losing the gun ban certainly did not produce the rise in murders that many might have expected.

New York's new law bans guns that are "in common use" and passes unreasonable restrictions on magazines (try to find a seven-round magazine just for grins).

The plain language of the Heller decision renders New York's restrictions unconstitutional.

In Oregon, for instance, multiple sheriffs have told the federal government that any unconstitutional restrictions on guns will not be enforced:

Another Oregon sheriff says he would refuse to enforce any new federal gun law he believes is unconstitutional... Crook County Sheriff Jim Hensley said Tuesday he sent the same letter to Vice President Joe Biden that was sent Monday by Linn County Sheriff Tim Mueller.

The letter says politicians are attempting to exploit the deaths of innocent victims in the Connecticut school shooting by supporting laws that would harm law-abiding Americans.

Hensley told KTVZ he believes in the Second Amendment, and he says officials should consider other factors that may have a role in mass shootings, such as violent video games.

Cuomo has violated his oath of office. He took an oath to uphold the Constitution and he lied. His flatly unconstitutional gun ban law is proof that he has violated his oath of office.

I encourage you to listen to Cuomo's "State of the State" speech, if only for a minute or two.

The speech was praised as groundbreaking and landmark by progressives who fretted for two years that they were fooled by the son of liberal icon Mario Cuomo. Andrew Cuomo, they thought, had fashioned himself a new kind of Democrat focused on holding the line on spending and taxes.

"We are a community based on progressive principles," Cuomo said in Wednesday's often fiery speech. "We must remain that progressive capital of the nation."

Go ahead and listen. Don't worry, I'll wait here.

At the risk of violating Godwin's law, I want you to close your eyes and transport yourself back to Germany in 1933 and imagine this same speech.

The hysterical rhetoric, the shrieking dialect, the fomenting of panic, the over-the-top lies, and the demonization of a large, law-abiding segment of the population.

The progressive movement is at war with the Constitution.

No self-described "progressive" can honestly take an oath of office to uphold the Constitution. The two philosophies are oil and water.

Cuomo's unconstitutional gun control laws hold no weight and should therefore be given all of the regard they deserve. Which is to say, none.

PURE, UNVARNISHED IDIOCY: In Rush to Ban Guns, Andrew Cuomo Forgets to Exempt Law Enforcement

Yep, this is what you call Presidential Front-runner Material™ for the Democrat Party!

I guess they had to read the legislation eventually to find out what was in it.

These people are dangerously stupid. Not a single person stopped to think about whether any of these meaningless laws would affect the police? F***ing idiots.

It appears someone forgot to exempt police officers from the ban of ammunition clips with more than 7 bullets in New York State’s new gun control law...

...It’s a big oversight that apparently happened in the haste by the Cuomo Administration to get a tough package of gun-control measures signed into law...

A big oversight, huh? Yeah, well, stuff happens when you’re busy trampling the rights of the law-abiding.

On Tuesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the sweeping gun measure, the nation’s toughest. It includes a ban on the possession of high-capacity magazines... magazines with more than 7 rounds will be illegal under the new law.

The problem as the statute is currently written does NOT exempt law enforcement officers... The NYPD, the State Police and virtually every law enforcement agency in the state carry 9-milli-meter guns, which have a 15-round capacity.

Unless an exemption is added by the time the law takes effect in March, police would technically be in violation of the new gun measure

.
Abject stupidity, but entirely predictable. We surmise if anyone actually asked Cuomo he’d have no idea what the police carry. And don’t forget, this is the same guy who said he could “overpower the extremists” with “intelligence and with reason and with common sense.”

What else would you expect from Andrew "the Architect of Ruin" Cuomo, the man who touched off the mortgage meltdown?


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

GUN-GRABBER ANDREW CUOMO: Architect of Ruin

Andrew Cuomo, governor of the bankrupt state of New York, has been in the news of late. Among his many bizarre proclamations are assertions that he could "confiscate" firearms and enact other unconstitutional, anti-gun statutes.

But who is Andrew Cuomo? What you may not know about him is that he was one of key architects of the 2008 housing crisis.

Curiously, not only is this man not a laughingstock (or, better yet, serving in federal lockup), he's ostensibly a front-runner for the Democrat presidential nomination in 2016.

Flashback to 1997, when President Bill Clinton named Andrew Cuomo, a man without any significant real estate or financial experience, the youngest head of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in history.

...Read more...