New Yorkers need access to firearms for personal protection in the wake of Sandy

ALBANY, NY (11/05/2012)(readMedia)-- Reports of looting in areas of New York City and Long Island ravaged by Hurricane Sandy underscore the need for average citizens to have ready access to firearms for personal protection.

Both the New York Post and Daily News have run stories of average New Yorkers forced to use improvised weapons including baseball bats, machetes, and even bows and arrows, to protect themselves from roving bands of looters and lowlifes seeking to enrich themselves off the suffering of others.

For decades, numerous area politicians including the current Mayor Michael Bloomberg, have built their political careers selling one gun control scheme after another under the guise of public safety. It is undeniably apparent in the wake of Sandy that these policies have failed and failed miserably.

It is high time for New York to reform its gun laws and bring them into the mainstream of American society. NYSRPA calls upon the state legislature to enact a statewide non-discriminatory right-to-carry firearms for personal protection law and for the Senate to pass H.R. 822, the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act.