BELLEVUE, WA – New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s declaration of a “disaster emergency on gun violence” is a desperate attempt to shift blame to guns and the firearms industry to mask his own incompetence in dealing with rising crime in the Empire State, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.
Cuomo announced his “emergency” after 51 people were shot across the state over the July 4 holiday weekend, including 26 in just New York City. Asserting that, “We went from one epidemic to another epidemic, we went from COVID to the epidemic of gun violence,” Cuomo argued that “more people are dying of gun violence than of COVID.” But CCRKBA fired right back.
“Since he brought it up,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “Cuomo’s incompetence in dealing with rising violent crime is as bad as how he botched the coronavirus outbreak by putting COVID-19 patients in nursing homes. Trying to fix blame on gun manufacturers and their perfectly legal products when the fault is with his own policies and his party’s soft-on-criminals agenda is simply pitiful, and I don’t think his broadcaster brother is going to be able to talk him out of this mess.”
The Democrat governor announced plans to use $138.7 million in an effort to prevent crime and create employment programs for “at-risk” youth, with 21,000 summer jobs through local, city and state agencies. But Gottlieb said Empire State residents should be wary of any efforts that “just throw money” at crime problems rather than focusing on making offenders accountable for their criminal behavior.
“Signing legislation that essentially encourages municipal governments to file junk lawsuits against the firearms industry actually runs counter to existing federal law, and Cuomo knows it,” Gottlieb observed. “The governor must think public attention will be diverted by legal dramatics so his inability or unwillingness to take meaningful action against violent criminals will melt back into the shadows. We’re not going to let that happen.
“As governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo has been a train wreck with mass casualties,” Gottlieb said, “and his emergency declaration is an intellectually dishonest maneuver to convince voters none of this was his fault. But he’s the man in charge, he’s been in charge and he’s got to take ownership of this disaster.”