Busloads Of Gun Rights Supporters Albany Bound

Hear WBEN's Tom Bauerle
Live From Albany as
Gun Rights Supporters Rally

Today: 9 am- 12 noon

(WBEN) A coalition of gun groups from across New York State are headed to Albany today for what they hope will be the largest gathering yet of gun rights supporters since New York State enacted ammunition limits and and restrictions on certain types of weapons in late January.

The effort, coordinated by the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, includes the WNY gun-rights group SCOPE (Shooters Committee on Public Education) , former Republican Gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino and WBEN's Tom Bauerle.

WBEN sent two buses with a total of 79 people aboard.

COMPLETE COVERAGE: Video of WBEN Listeners Boarding The Bus | Commentary: Tim's Take | Your Comments | Facebook.com/WBEN930 | Our Webpoll at Right or Below

Exclusive WBEN Audio The Albany Gun Rally Express
	Steven Aldtstadt, SCOPE
	WBEN's Tom Bauerle
	Assy. David DiPietro (R-East Aurora)
	WBEN's Steve Cichon, aboard the bus
	Jimmy Vielkind, Albany Times Union

Tims 's Take: COMMENTARY From WBEN/WGR/WWKB Operations Manager Tim Wenger
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THE RALLY
From the NYS Rifle & Pistol Assoc:

WHAT: A day to lobby the state legislature on gun rights. Call your Assemblyman and State Senator to make an appointment to meet with them in their offices on the 28th.

WHERE: Capitol Park, next to the Legislative Office Building (LOB).

WHEN: Thursday, February 28. Lobbying all day from 9:00am on.

Women's photoshoot at 11:30am.

Rally and speakers
start at noon.

National Rifle Association President David Keene is expected to address the crowd, near noon Thursday.

The association is also encouraging its members to visit with their local legislators to make case for repeal of the state's new gun laws.

"Call your Assemblyman and State Senator to make an appointment to meet with them in their offices on the 28th. If they refuse show up anyway," the association urged members, in a web posting promoting the rally.

The state law, passed in late January, reduces the maximum legal magazine size from 10 bullets to seven. The law also redefines assault weapons to include semiautomatic rifles with detachable magazines that have one military-style feature such as a pistol grip, flash suppressor or bayonet mount, instead of two.

Owners of an estimated 1 million formerly legal guns can keep them but are required to register them with state police within a year.

"This is just one part of it. This is not the end. This is not going to go away. People are not going to forget this,"

--Steven Aldtstadt, President of SCOPE, the Western New York gun rights organization.

- Image 7 Two lines in the morning stretched through the underground concourse of Empire State Plaza in downtown Albany, with a mass of demonstrators waiting to pass through checkpoints and metal detectors to enter the Capitol. Several held signs with slogans like, "Don't tread on me."

"We believe Gov. Cuomo jumped on the bandwagon to become president of the United States," said Tom Moriarty, a retired New York City police officer from Orange County. He said the criminal laws already on the books should be enforced to the fullest, rather than infringing on people's Second Amendment rights and guns they have for hunting and security.

"There's a lot of people here. There's more people coming right now," said Moriarty, who arrived with 125 members of the Black Rock Fish & Game Club in Cornwall on two buses.

At least 5,000 protesters were gathered in a park west of the Capitol late in the morning, listening to speakers and carrying signs with slogans including "Repeal the law, no amendments" and "We the people, don't forge

Several polls show pockets of intense passion against the issue, especially among upstate locations. Busses from across New York state were expected, including sportsmans and gun rights groups from Syracuse, Duchess County, and Long Island

As of Wednesday morning, gun groups sponsoring buses from from Chemung , Erie, Onondaga, Oswego and St. Lawrence Counties were reporting no room on their busses, and encouraging car pooling.

". We have pretty much booked up most of the busses that we have planned," Aldtstadt says.

HEAR Bauerle with Assy. David DiPietro

Bauerle will broadcast live from the rally, outside the state capitol building, Thursday beginning at 9 am. NYS State Assemblyman David Dipietro (R-East Aurora) , who has vowed to introduce a repeal measure has also said he'd speak at the event.

VIDEO: WBEN Listeners boarding
The Albany Gun Rally Express

"Here's what concerns me. Governor Cuomo says there might be some tweaking of this NY Safe thing. And by tweaking -- you and I both know they will change it for police officers and not for the rest of us, because you know, police officer bleed fine wine, the rest of us bleed sludge," Bauerle said of the possibility of repeal.

In recent weeks, 24 county legislatures, including ones in Erie, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Niagara, Wyoming, Orleans and Livingston Counties have all passed messages urging repeal of the law.

Statewide polling shows majority support for the measure especially among downstate voters, Democrats and independents, with fierce pockets of opposition upstate concentrated among Republicans.

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After the rally, what are you expecting?
Continued pressure.
( 76% )
Quick action to attempt appeal!
( 10% )
The issue will die down.
( 14% )

Meanwhile in Washington....

Recent mass shootings like the massacre of first-graders and staffers at a Connecticut elementary school and the increasing deadliness of assault weapons makes a ban on those firearms more urgent than ever, the Senate author of a proposal to prohibit them said Wednesday.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., made the remark as the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on her proposal, which would also bar ammunition magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds.

But the bruising, difficult path through Congress that the proposal will have was illustrated when the Judiciary panel's top Republican challenged the need for the assault weapons ban. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, questioned the ban's constitutionality and said it would take the weapons away from people who use them for self-defense.

The hearing was the Senate's third since the Dec. 14 attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., that killed 20 students and six workers. The Judiciary panel could begin writing legislation as early as Thursday, but that session is likely to be delayed until next week.

Numerous relatives and neighbors of victims of Newtown, as well as other shootings at Aurora, Colo., and Virginia Tech filled the large hearing room.

At one point, Feinstein played a video showing how a bump fire slide, a piece of equipment added to an assault weapon, allows it to rapidly fire many rounds of ammunition, much as a machine gun would.

"The need for a federal ban has never been greater," Feinstein said.

Grassley expressed sympathy for gun violence victims, but said existing gun laws are not being adequately enforced, including background checks designed to prevent criminals from getting weapons.

"We should be skeptical about giving the Justice Department more laws to enforce" when it's not enforcing current ones, Grassley said.

Grassley said he believed Congress will eventually take action on boosting penalties for illegally trafficking guns, on more adequately keeping guns from people with mental problems, and encouraging states do a better job of reporting mental health records of potential gun buyers to the federal background check system.

RALLY PICTURES