Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY), who showed on Tuesday night why it is that she only agreed to one debate, had a particularly cringeworthy performance when it comes to her handling of crime. One especially viral moment was when she actually told her Republican opponent, Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) "I don't know why that's so important to you" when it comes to holding criminals accountable. As Zeldin also hit her on, though, the only crimes she seemed to care about was when it had to do with guns. Beyond Hochul's own obsessively frequent connections, gun control came up as a topic at the very end of the debate.
Moderator Errol Louis specifically brought up how the U.S. Supreme Court in June struck down a New York State concealed carry law in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen. What Louis didn't mention is that the state law was particularly egregious, as it required those seeking concealed carry permits to prove "proper cause exists."
Not only did Hochul defend the law, but she reverted to another obsessive debate habit, which was to bring former President Donald Trump into it, to blame them for ruling in favor of gun owners. The 6-3 decision included all conservative members of the Court, though, not merely Trump's three nominees. The opinion was also written by Justice Clarence Thomas, who has been on the bench since 1991, having been appointed by then President George H. W. Bush.
Stunningly enough, Hochul promoted the segment herself from her own Twitter account, during which she claimed what changed so as to bring this decision about was "Donald Trump's appointees to the United States Supreme Court--the same ones that overturned your right to have an abortion--they took away my right as governor to protect the citizens on our subways, synagogues, or sitting in a classroom from having a concealed carry weapon." Still hammering against the Court, she claimed "they've opened up the floodgates."
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s reckless decision on concealed carry, we took swift action to strengthen our gun safety laws.
— Kathy Hochul (@KathyHochul) October 26, 2022
It is my job to keep people safe and I’m not backing down on this — not now, not ever. #NYGovDebate pic.twitter.com/Mw9IAXyZ86
Such a claim was particularly rich, as Hochul only just days ago released her plan to curb subway violence, which involves beatings and people being pushed onto the tracks. Murders on the subway system has also risen, even while ridership plummeted. This is despite Hochul having been in office for over a year.
Hochul event went on to tout her efforts to further restrict the Second Amendment event more, and came off as dismissive that future legislative action could be overturned. "Are there court challenges? Sure there are. There's court challenges to every single thing that's dealt with a gun," as she sought to go beyond her allotted time to condemn Zeldin's opposition to the SAFE Act.
As Zeldin also brought up during that part of the debate, Hochul's extreme actions against guns isn't limited to the law overturned in the Bruen case. This includes Hochul having credit card companies flag gun purchases as suspicious.
Speaking about the shooting that took place outside his Long Island home just a few weeks ago while his 16-year-old twin daughters were home alone, Zeldin pointed out "I guarantee you, unlike my opponent, who put out a tweet a few weeks ago and said that she is calling on American Express, and Mastercard, and Visa to flag every attempted purchase of a firearm as a suspicious purchase, I guarantee you, the person who opened up his or her gun on my front yard, didn't start with a swipe of an American Express card."
The congressman, on a roll, continued to hammer Hochul for how "instead of going after illegal firearms" and crimes "committed by criminals, and they're still out on the streets, committing additional crimes," also condemned how Hochul "goes after the law-abiding New Yorkers, so she went so far the next week to pass a new law that was even more unconstitutional than the last law, infringing on First Amendment rights to infringe all over on Second Amendment rights."
Zeldin predicted "so what's going to happen, drum roll," which he himself mimicked at the podium, "it's going to get overturned by the courts, of course, because it's unconstitutional."
There was plenty more absurdity that time didn't allow Zeldin to bring up, though it was certainly fitting for him to prioritize how Hochul has weaponized credit card companies now against the Second Amendment as well.
Last month, Civil War reenactments were actually canceled in the state because of concerns to do with the state's recent law banning guns in "sensitive locations." Just last week, courts ruled that the law enforcing a gun ban in places of worship was unconstitutional.
Shortly before that, the law faced another loss in the courts, as Madeline highlighted:
Judge Glenn Suddbaby of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York said in the ruling that the state “further entrenched itself as a shall-not-issue jurisdiction” and “further reduced a first-class constitutional right to bear arms in public for self defense…into a mere request.”
In the ruling, Suddbaby explained that certain parts of the law went too far, such as a requirement for gun license applicants to turn over information about their social media accounts as part of a “character and conduct” screening. Other components of the law, such as a ban on guns in schools, government buildings and places of worship, will remain in place, according to the Associated Press.
While Hochul still leads in many polls, her lead has been shrinking, as momentum has been on Rep. Zeldin's side, even before Tuesday night's debate. Last Friday, a co/efficient poll was released showing Zeldin slightly ahead of Hochul, with 45.6 percent to her 45.3 percent.
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