Bob McManus of the New York Post questioned the usefulness of new gun laws passed by New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo given the fact that the guns in question have killed so few people.
Politics, not policy, looks to have been the point of Cuomo’s so-called SAFE Act of 2013, a gun-control bill marinated in rhetoric certain to please those liberal Democrats who pick presidential candidates—but which promises to make New Yorkers only very marginally safer.
That is, it’s cosmetically correct, but it’s substantively—and perhaps constitutionally—a cynical exercise.
McManus pointed out a major problem with the bill:
It’s highly intrusive, but it seems unlikely to address many security concerns—apart from tightening some lax laws governing gun access by the potentially violent mentally ill.
The law focuses heavily on rifles, for example, never mind that rifles were used in all of five murders in New York state in 2011; fists killed 28.
He also noted that New York already has strict gun laws—which are ignored by criminals.