New York Politicians Want to Suppress Free Assembly Rights for Gun Rights Supporters
Brooklyn Council Member Justin Brannan crows via tweet that "we've successfully chased the @NRA underground in #Brooklyn."

A group called Brooklyn Friends of the NRA has been having trouble finding public venues willing to host their meetings, out of a general prejudice against gun-rights supporters in the borough. Last night, Spectrum News 1 reports, protesters appeared outside a meeting they held at the Friends of Columbus in Dyker Heights. Two previous venues are reported to have canceled on them "amid protests from anti-gun groups."

Those protesters were exercising their First Amendment rights, just as the NRA members were. But two local politicians, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and Council Member Justin Brannan, showed a dubious understanding of the role governments in America are supposed to have regarding free assembly when they issued a joint statement saying: "We are disappointed to learn of an NRA fundraiser in Dyker Heights. The NRA does not value the safety and security of our neighborhoods. It is no friend to Brooklyn."
The New York Daily News has explicitly connected an earlier venue's choice to cancel on the pro-NRA group to politicians' pressure.
Brannan's twitter feed is full of self-satisfied desire to push constituents who believe things he doesn't out of the public square:
Looks like we've successfully chased the @NRA underground in #Brooklyn. Now they've gotta sneak around behind our backs and book catering halls under fake names just to have a meeting. Sounds about right. https://t.co/Rt6sOaok8N
— Justin Brannan (@JustinBrannan) April 26, 2018
Brannan is just acting in the mainstream of his state's Democratic Party, as Gov. Andrew Cuomo has previously announced people with certain conservative social policy views aren't really welcome in his New York.
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reports that the pro-NRA group drew about 100 people, while there were only around a dozen protesters. There were also pro-gun-rights demonstrators protesting the protest. "Brooklynite Joe Abruzzo brought his Don't Tread On Me flag to support the NRA group's right to meet. 'People have someone break into their home, they're gonna call for help or hope their neighbor's armed,' he said."
The Brooklyn Reporter notes that many were especially upset that the "event was originally billed to include a raffle and auction which, organizers once boasted would include exclusive NRA gear and guns, such as the John Wayne 'Lil' Duke' BB Rifle; a .410.-gauge shotgun; a Colt Cobra revolver; and a 7mm-08 'women's rifle." The paper quotes Andrew Gounardes, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for State Senate:
The NRA has absolutely no place in Brooklyn. They do not believe in common-sense gun laws. They do not believe in keeping our neighborhood safe and the fact that they have to sneak around our community just to hold a fundraiser shows how wrong they know they are and how unwelcome they are in our community.
Why it is supposed to be a black mark against free citizens trying to peacefully assemble to possibly exchange or gift legal items and organize politically that local politicians show so little respect for free assembly that they openly cheer the citizens being shut down is insufficiently explained. But the NRA's views on the Second Amendment apparently make it a "disgraceful organization," according to another Democratic state Senate candidate, Ross Barkan.
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Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and Council Member Justin Brannan, showed a dubious understanding of the role governments in America are supposed to have regarding free assembly...
But likely a keen understanding of what will buy them votes.
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Seems to be normalizing violence and harassment here.
Violence and harassment are perfectly acceptable when used against people with bad intentions. People like 2A supporters who want school children to die.
I have never met a 2nd-A supporter that wanted children to die... BUT I have met lots of Democrats that have no problem with the mass murder going on in their cities.... did you know that the US has FIVE cities in the list of most Dangerous Cities in the world and everyone of them is run by Democrats? Surprise, surprise! and this list does not include Chicago, Trenton, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Hartford, Durham, Oakland, Compton, Gary, Flint and others.... So what is it about Democrat policies that turn their cities in to murder zones? I mean these are the people who do not support the 2nd.
You left Rockford off the list. We never get no respect.
The countdown for the Top 30 Murder Capitals of America:
Rank City
30 Lake Worth, FL
29 Charleston, WV
28 Harrisburg, PA
27 Kansas City, MO
26 East Point, GA
25 Chicago, IL
24 San Bernardino, CA
23 Elkhart, IN
22 North Charleston, SC
21 Memphis, TN
20 Orlando, FL
19 Goldsboro, NC
18 Jackson, MS
17 Petersburg, VA
16 Cleveland, OH
15 Newark, NJ
14 Compton, CA
13 Wilmington, DE
12 Danville, VA
11 Salisbury, NC
10 New Orleans, LA
9 Detroit, MI
8 Flint, MI
7 Baltimore, MD
6 West Memphis, AR
5 Gary, IN
4 St. Louis, MO
3 Camden, NJ
2 Chester, PA
1 East St. Louis, IL
If conservatives ran the world Alfie Evans would still be alive today. He probably wouldn't live forever, but he wouldn't have to die prematurely because the longer he lives the worse it makes socialized medicine look.
It's kind of strange how the people that talk the most about how important it is to save children from all sorts of remote or even imaginary dangers are always the biggest cheerleaders when the government actually sets out to kill children.
But the right kind by the right people.
Every NRA supporter should bring their 2nd Amendment protected guns to a 1st Amendment rally.
Not in Brooklyn. There are no 2nd amendment protected rights in New York.
There are but people don't fight for them.
Apparently there are no 1st Amendment protected rights in New York either.
The same people want to suppress both. Coincidence?
Dang, that's near me. I should have walked over and joined them. But hockey was on*. The same neighborhood was won by Trump, by the way. So Mr. "The NRA has absolutely no place in Brooklyn" is either talking out of his ass or isn't interested in representing the parts of Brooklyn that don't step in line.
*It's apathy such as mine that causes these assholes to believe they're "right" about everything, when in fact most people just don't care enough to push back.
*It's apathy such as mine that causes these assholes to believe they're "right" about everything, when in fact most people just don't care enough to push back.
So you're not the one screeching at the city council meetings, 5 days a week?
Agree with what I want or your are not legitimate, not welcome in the city, and are not allowed to exercise your rights. And it's supposed to be the far right that are the fascists.
How far the left has fallen, when it used to be I disagree with you but will fight for your right to say it. Now I disagree with you and will shut you down, harass you, shake you up, etc.
Kyle Kashuv goes to a gun range with his dad, a perfectly legal activity, and gets harassed for it. Lindsay Shepherd shows a clip of Jordan Peterson and gets an SJW inquisition. It goes on and on
Yeah, the right are full of a bunch of downtrodden martyrs. They just control all branches of the federal government and a majority of state governments. But really, let's whine some more about leftist protestors. They're the real fascists here.
SimonP:
Bitching about people bitching about people bitching...
Way to raise the bar, bitch
Two bitches walk into a bar...
The bartender says, "I'm sorry, we don't serve dogs here."
The cruder they behave, the cruder their image. Of course, they don't see it, but they do believe it, and they act cruder and cruder. Each crude increment just turns off more people. Eventually they will behave like baboons and wonder why no one likes them any more.
Hopefully this applies to that orange baboon.
It might, but he's just one. I'm thinking of politicians in general. Because government defines its own limits, it effectively has no checks, no feedback worthy of the name. Elections are a joke -- some politician is going to win, and the only accountability at the upper levels is that they retire from elected office with a fat pension and tremendous networking buddies for far more income than they had in office. Thus they can pretty much behave as boorishly as they want.
That is what I meant in the general case. I'm not sure how well that applies to Presidents, as they have no interest in further, lesser, political office. Obama might have hoped Hillary would put him on the Supreme Court, who knows?
So the anti-gun left has gotten this brazen...
You are late to the party...this has been going on for years...
The NRA's time is coming to an end. Sure, they have almost limitless financial resources and have bought off countless politicians. But the momentum is on the side of supporters of common sense gun safety, like David Hogg. Once Democrats take back the House in November and the presidency in 2020, sensible policies that a majority of Americans support will be enacted.
#BlueWave
#BanAssaultWeapons
#BanBans
you can't be that stupid. Well, you are a progressive so, yes you can.
Not a progressive. I'm a left-libertarian. Those terms aren't interchangeable.
"Not a progressive. I'm a left-libertarian. Those terms aren't interchangeable"
If you believe in a gun ban of any type you are no ware near libertarian left or right.
plus Libertarians de not think of them selves as left or right. We tend to go anarchist, near anarchist to limited government types. See the Texas accord in American Libertarian history.
"I'm a left-libertarian"
So, "left-libertarians" are actually NOT supporters of individual liberties? Is that it?
Left-libertarian is code for socialist who wants drugs and/or butt sex because the socialist's state power to control tends to limit individual vices.
A plain libertarian would be in favor of open borders. That's why your shtick falls flat.
A plain Libertarian would not be absolutely for open borders. That claim takes power away from government to defend your country at the borders or decide whom to admit.
An anarchist would be for open borders. All other political views have varying degrees of border security.
Truly entertaining humor walks that fine line between believability and absurdity. You are that rare adept, more skilled than any tightrope walker. Bravo!
When the left-wing statists enact their sensible policies, how exactly are they going to get the guns from all those who aren't going to willingly give them up in the name of safety, the children and common sense? They could appeal to the right-wing statists which constitute the majority of the police and intelligence agencies, which won't work. Or, they could take up arms themselves, thereby revealing their innate, glaring hypocrisy and completely annihilating their delusional "high ground." Either way, this farce will truly be something to behold!
It will be interesting to see them get the firearms from people like MS-13.
"almost limitless financial resources and have bought off countless politicians"
Hm. Soooooo, what RANK does the NRA hold in the list of political lobbying organizations?
The NRA is not anywhere near the top ten campaign contributors in this country, or the top 100, or the top 200, or even the top 300. It is in the top 400, at No. 383 (as of October 2017 it is 460), and senators cannot be bought, or even rented, at that price.
While we're at it, can you offer any rational explanation for the juxtaposition between the rise in firearm ownership and the decline in gun deaths?
But we have plenty of reason to believe that Americans use a gun in the service of deterring a crime or potential crime over 2 million times a year. That does not require killing someone with the gun?about three-fourths of the time the gun does not need to be fired much less kill to deter criminal activity.
Stop pretending to be a libertarian, commie kid, and just come out and say that you're a statist leftist troll. You're not fooling anyone. You're too stupid.
While we're at it, can you offer any rational explanation for the juxtaposition between the rise in firearm ownership and the decline in gun deaths?
I can, but I have to speculate, because pro gun advocacy has shut down any reasonable possibility of getting valid statistics. It would be rational to speculate that more guns are being owned by fewer people, which would be consistent with less gun crime, at least until those guns get dispersed after the owners' demise, or for some other reason. Another speculative factor would be better trauma care, saving more lives among gunshot victims than previously.
Both those speculations seem to have notable basis in fact, but you would need valid statistics to conclude whether they are explanatory. Gun advocates' opposition to collation of good quality data on guns and gun crimes notably undermines any notion that they know what they are talking about, or even want to know.
"Another speculative factor would be better trauma care, saving more lives among gunshot victims than previously."
The murder rate peaked in 1980 at 10.2, and dropped to 5.3 in 2016. The corresponding rates for robbery are 251.1 and 102.8. Who knew that better trauma care also reduced robbery rates!
Apparently better trauma care also reduces burglaries by a lot, but doesn't affect rapes very much.
Of course, it's also possible to speculate that crime rates are affected by many complex factors, and simplistic speculation isn't worth much.
Annual crime rates
Aggravated assaults are also down in conjunction with the rest of the falling crime rates over the past 20 years. That is a key stat that shows that less people are being assaulted with deadly weapons.
Quit peddling the fib.
CDC was barred from using Congressional research grants to lobby Congress for gun control.
CDC was not barred from doing pure empirical research on gun violence.
CDC has admitted they are not barred from doing statistical research.
http://www.cdc.gov/grants/addi.....ar-12.html
http://www.cdc.gov/grants/addi.....ar-13.html
Gun crime in a criminology problem - deliberate acts by people with motive and intent.
Trying to fit it in the germ theory of disease is bad fit.
Fuck you. We have plenty of stats from objective sources (like the CDC). Gun ownership rates do not correlate with gun murders. Places like Wyoming, Idaho, and even Vermont have above average ownership and near-zero murder rates. And places like Maryland and Illinois have low ownership and high gun murder rates.
An inconvevient (and absurd) truth: among the many factors that do correlate with murder rate is proportion of black population, showing some of the strongest statistical results. Whether victims, murderers, or both, reducing blacks would statistically reduce gun violence.
Reducing blacks?
In the FBI murder statistics , the approx. 6% of the population comprising male black offenders accounted for almost half of all murders, and were similarly disproportionately victims.
Black males murder other black males at 5-6 times the rate the rest of the population kills each other.
I imagine that it is a tiny fraction of the overall population--primarily urban gangs and their culture of violence--responsible for the inflated numbers rather than any actual racial component.
The FBI has plenty of crime statistics, that even includes type of weapon involved. Love the liberal lies that gun violence can not be researched.
You're no libertarian. Go troll somewhere else.
This was meant for OpenBoardersLiberal-atarian. Don't know how it ended up down here.
This seems to be the general refrain, but the numbers rolling in right now aren't looking good for the Democrats. The party appears to again be alienating voters and still appear out of touch, particularly with working class voters and classical liberals.
So, like 2016, it's going to hinge on turnout. If they further devolve into merely an anti-Trump tirade without pushing issues to mobilize voters, the "blue wave" isn't going to materialize. The latest numbers are not encouraging.
I agree for slightly different reasons. Although "higher taxes" does have a certain ring to it.
http://classicalvalues.com/201.....ot-wanted/
That was some damn fine work, OBL.
Bravo
Hah - keep it coming.
Blue wave? Really?
I think the blues have peaked too soon.
I predict a Red Wave.
http://classicalvalues.com/201.....ot-wanted/
Almost limitless financial resources? Love the exaggeration.
The NRA will still exist then, unless you want some kind of totalitarian repeal of the 1st Amendment.
protesters appeared outside a meeting they held at the Friends of Columbus in Dyker Heights.
There's a whole tone of off-color jokes to be made here.
Two words: Bear spray.
The left wants to surround itself with a zero-tolerance environment. That's the only way lefties feel secure: when they've no reminders that everyone does not agree with their left wing beliefs. That's the reason they're so easy to argue with. They have failed, on a day-to-day basis, to come in contact with opposition. The rest of us exercise our brains and minds and conversational skill on these issues regularly.
As others have described it: "Free speech for me, but not for thee."
That's the only way lefties feel secure: when they've no reminders that everyone does not agree with their left wing beliefs.
Tell me, buddy - what left-wing websites have you been haunting lately?
It never ceases to amaze me that some people demand LESS liberty.
They very rarely demand less liberty for themselves. It's always about controlling somebody else.
Nobody ever stood up and demanded "pass a law so I can't jaywalk, or drive over 55, or smoke, or own a gun." As Heinlein noted nearing 50 years ago.
People don't think of 'make others just like me, or my ideals' as a decrease in liberty. It's for 'those other folks' own good. Thus, liberating.
Incoherent, evil, and commonplace.
How, exactly, is my liberty improved by the proliferation of guns, to such an extent that I have to consider purchasing one myself, when I'd prefer not to?
Do you ever actually read the things you write, bitch?
Do you have any other schticks? This one isn't very compelling.
We would all like to live in a perfect world..... but watch the news and see the murder and other violent crime... I have guns but the truth is I cannot get to them since they are locked up,,,, but I live in a place where there is low crime and often leave my front door to my town house open when I leave... So,,, live near a violent part of town,,, get a gun... Else,,, buy good locks and doors and not worry about it...
Why would you have to consider purchasing one yourself?
Not many shootings out in my culturally homogenous, quasi-rural exurb.
Maybe if you shitlibs weren't so hung up on living in the human version of a Calhoun rat experiment, you wouldn't have to worry about so much gun crime.
As in Germany, they are demanding more coercion--which they DEFINE as freedom. Voting libertarian causes looters to rethink their conditioning, especially after drooling over the spoiler votes that would have handed them the power to coerce.
The paper quotes Andrew Gounardes, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for State Senate: "They [the NRA] do not believe in common-sense gun laws."
Beavis and Butthead: "I don't like things that suck. I like things that are cool."
Ever notice how the advocates of "common sense" gun laws never care to define the difference between "common sense" gun laws, and gun laws which are extreme and draconian?
It's not too hard to figure out. It's like the "rape and incest" "exception" in abortion-rights discourse. For whatever reason, that's where the politics breaks between abortion rights-support and opposition. Abortion prohibitionists find it too difficult politically to take the position that women should be required to carry their rapists' or fathers' children. So they make up these "exceptions," which act like escape valves.
In gun rights discourse, people who want to restrict gun rights have found a middle ground which, for whatever reason, breaks on background checks, closing the "gun show loophole," mental health-based restrictions, and maybe even prospective measures to restrict access to guns for people with demonstrated violent tendencies or ambitions. None of that strikes moderates as "extreme" or "draconian," and it seems like a point at which the debate can get a toehold.
And what concessions are you offering in return for such a modest "middle ground" proposal?
I'd rather dyker depths.
The left are evil.
That is all.
Hmm? Even NAZIs have the right to free assembly. What a cultural corruption the Dems have found for us. And yes, to quote Van Jones,"they're assholes."
Libertarians are all "don't tread on me" right up until people start exercising their rights in ways they don't like.
Look, absolutely nothing described here is unconstitutional. Politicians are allowed to say that the NRA isn't welcome in Brooklyn or anywhere in NYC. Owners of private venues are free to cancel engagements when they deem fit. Protestors are free to protest anything they god damn well please.
If NRA snowflakes don't like it, maybe they need to re-acquaint themselves with the other parts of the Constitution. They really aren't welcome in NYC. Get over it, snookums.
Libertarians are all "don't tread on me" right up until people start exercising their rights in ways they don't like.
That's a mighty big generalization you have made there. There are those who hover on the fringes of libertarianism but find it difficult to let go of some of their prejudices. We're not all paragons of a purely libertarian philosophy, but you don't seem particularly "on message" yourself. Bitter lefty malcontent? Let go of the negativity, instead of trying to project it on some generalized straw man.
That's a mighty big generalization you have made there.
Yeah, go fuck yourself.
Bake the cake, bigot.
Brannan is lauding harassment and intimidation of local businesses. I loathe Marxists like Brannan but would never deprive him of free speech. If a local business provided him a platform, I would simply take my business elsewhere.
Brannan is lauding harassment and intimidation of local businesses.
And you're lying through your teeth. No evidence of any "harassment" or "intimidation" is being presented here. Protesters, yes, protesting. That's it. If that's "harassment" and "intimidation," in your view, then yes, you probably need to re-acquaint yourself with the First Amendment.
So that locally-supported "not welcome" thing applies to blacks and Muslims and hippies, too, right?
Except Rockaway and Breezy Point and Howard Beach and Canarsie and East New York or most of Staten Island.....
They could probably find a place to assemble in formerly gun-free Toronto.
Of course, such "freedoms" do not exist if the expression is contrary to the development of the socialist system. Comrade President Eric Adams and Comrade Council Member Justin Brannan had to act to silence and otherwise chill the false, unworthy freedoms of dissident, anti-social elements who have no place in progressive Brooklyn. Tolerance demands intolerance to their anti-social opinions and freedom demands unity of opinion.
The NRA may only be a shell of what it began as, but the above indicates that the response is nothing more than a salute to mob mentality, indicates by the argumentum ad populum fallacy.
I bet if they held a swinger's club meeting, they could openly advertise it, rent a room in any building large enough to accommodate them, and drape a sign reading "WELCOME SWINGERS" over the door, and they wouldn't have as much hassle.
Do they have a url?
Asking for a friend.
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Creeps like these are why we need the second amendment.
So if every gun owner shot just one Democrat dead we would not have this problem any more. Our rights would not be threatened because gun owners would now be the majority.
Hell of an idea don-cha think.
BUT we will not have to do this as the LEFTIST will succeed in passing this Anti-Freedom Laws and since we can be sure that some of the 118,000,000 Firearms owners are complete loons they will go on shooting sprees.
We can only hope they target the people who took away our rights and not innocent people.
Then again they are CRAZY so no guarantee I guess.
I have tried to explain this simple concept to LIBTARDS but they do not care about the innocent,,, I ena have you ever looked at the Murder Rates in their cities?
I don't have a problem with towns or cities choosing to be crazy. Presumably, if you move to such a shithole, you like living among those people. The problem happens when they try to impose their craziness on others.
I'll expand on my previous remark...why not book an event in the name of the "Communism Discussion Club," and then discuss how gun-controllers are like Communists?
There's little chance that that *real* communists would get banned, so just let the government think they're real communists?
This Governor, "Prince Andrew" has set about to drive all Libertarians (who he see's as Conservative the middle being right of him) and Conservatives by hiking property taxes and over regulating individual actions (NO soda for you!) to the point it is driving people out of the state (75,000 a year from upstate). NYC is already a "City State" as it doesn't accept any laws of upstate, evidence by not recognizing upstate pistol permits within it's borders while demanding upstate recognize theirs and by passing more restrictive gun laws within its borders. Unfortunately the Republican's thought to go RINO to try to stop the the NYC liberal onslaught which resulted in them losing the NYS Senate majority. NY is now being run by Democrats at all levels. In comparison to the national Socialist Democrats NYS is now a communist state run from the central government in NYC.
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Politics is a circle and there is very little room between fascism and communism which incidents like this prove. Progressives believe in freedom of speech and freedom of assembly as long as they are the only ones allowed to speak or gather. Everyone else is not to be allowed the same rights because they do not "think correctly".
The lawsuit needs to go out yesterday. This is just totalitarian and wrong. ACLU needs to help us out on this.