Amid all the pious wailing we’re reading in other papers about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s decision to take a pass on assault weapons, Albany has given us a homegrown reminder what happens when politicians rush to exploit a tragedy.
So desperate was Gov. Cuomo to beat President Obama to the punch on gun control in the immediate aftermath of the Newtown massacre, the gun law that was passed made magazines with more than seven rounds of ammunition illegal.
One problem: No one seems to make seven-round magazines.
As a result, the governor and Albany are now working on clarifying language that would allow gun owners to have 10-round magazines. With one proviso: that they load no more than seven bullets in it.
Good luck enforcing that one.
All of this, of course, might’ve been easily avoided if the governor hadn’t bypassed the constitutionally mandated three-day waiting period for legislation. Or if lawmakers had more than 15 minutes to consider the bill before voting on it.
When it comes to guns, it seems that for our political class getting it first trumped getting it right.
Advocates of gun control and defenders of the Second Amendment don’t see eye to eye on much. But our guess is that this may be one of those rare moments where both sides of the ideological divide agree that, on this issue, Albany seems to have shot all seven rounds into its collective foot.