Letter To The Editor: Sen. Murphy's NRA Rating

To the Editor:

Republican Senator Murphy has a 93% rating from the NRA and has co-sponsored legislation to repeal the SAFE Act, a 2013 gun control statute that passed the NY Senate and Assembly with significant Republican support. The SAFE act includes limits on the use of assault weapons but sensibly protects hunting and target shooting.

Since then, additional legislation barring guns from the mentally ill and people convicted of domestic violence, enhancing background checks, and banning bump stocks, which were used in the Las Vegas massacre to convert semi-automatic weapons to automatic ones, have been approved by the NY Assembly. Julie Killian, now the Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor, said earlier this year that she does not support repeal of any part of the SAFE ACT and would support additional gun control measures. Murphy’s opponent for the Senate, Democrat Pete Harckham, also favors these measures.

Murphy, however, has co-sponsored legislation to REPEAL the SAFE Act and, like the Republican Senate leadership, opposes the Assembly’s additional gun control legislation. Since the Senate Majority Leader elected this coming January will largely control which bills come to a vote in the Senate during 2019 and 2020, passing additional gun control legislation will be extremely difficult as long as Republicans maintain their functional majority in the Senate. Your vote for Pete Harckham will help elect a Democratic Senate Majority Leader and enable sensible gun control legislation.

Jonathan Kratter

Cortlandt Manor, NY