Gov. Cuomo insists — with a straight face — that he wasn’t in a “foot race” to ram his gun-control bill through the Legislature before President Obama unveiled his own federal proposals.
Let’s be polite and just say the claim strains credibility.
The governor offers a number of explanations for why he submitted a “message of necessity” on the gun law. This is the procedure that lets lawmakers circumvent the three-day vetting process required by New York’s Constitution for any bill.
In interviews this week, Cuomo said speed was needed to avoid a gun-buying spree before the bill passed.
In fact, that had already happened. It’s been clear since the Sandy Hook school massacre that Albany was likely to pass a new gun-control measure. Guns have been flying off the shelf ever since, with people snapping up weapons they believed would soon be made illegal.
The governor further argues that to say “we needed another three days after 30 years of debate is absurd.” Maybe the legislators didn’t need three days. But surely they needed more than the 15 minutes they were given before voting on the bill.
Because the devil is always in the details, as the saying goes. In cases like this one, more so than others.
Indeed, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is already talking about the need to start “fixing” the just-enacted law — e.g., clarifying whether the ban on magazines that hold more than seven rounds applies to cops. Retired cops argue they too should be exempt, since they’re trained to use guns to protect people.
Cuomo’s protestations notwithstanding, we simply observe that he managed to get his bill passed and signed just in time for him to steal some of the headlines (and the praise that came with it) from the president on this hot-button political issue.