New York State Rifle and Pistol President, and NRA Board member Tom King sets the record straight on 80% lower claim.
New York – Ladies and Gentlemen,
There’s been an article written chastising me for supposedly agreeing with NYS Legislators in their bid to ban 80% lower receivers.
That article is wrong. To be clear: I do not support the banning of 80% lowers or any other firearm. Never have. Never will.
The quotes in question came from a thirty-minute Newsday interview that I conducted more than a month ago. Of course, only a couple of sentences were used from that 30 minute conversation.
I referenced a case in New York State where someone was illegally manufacturing, assembling and selling firearms –including full autos. As you know, those are illegal acts. I do not condone anyone intentionally breaking the law as I believe that only helps our opposition.
So, let me set the record straight. I oppose all registration and believe all lawful gun owners have the right to own the firearm of his or her choice whenever and where ever they choose. I believe ours is a country based on common law and the way to challenge laws we consider unconstitutional is in the voting booths and the courts, as we are doing in our U.S. Supreme Court case NYSRPA v. NYC and our Second Circuit Court of Appeals Case NYSRPA v. Beach, Cuomo et.al. We will win the battle!
In closing I would like to thank those who gave me the benefit of the doubt and called me for an explanation. I’ve spent twenty years fighting for your rights and I’m not going to throw those years away by kicking the Second Amendment under the bus at this late date.
Thank you for taking the time to read this missive.
Tom King
NYSRPA
Tom: 8 months ago I asked one simple question (yes or no) and you evaded giving a direct answer by saying: “All my answers are public. I’m not sure what you men(sic)”.
I’ll ask the same question again in the exact same wording: “Do you support the repeal of ALL firearms laws and will you actively work to achieve that end? (NRA certainly hasn’t)”.
This time around try a simple yes or no answer.
According to Newsday King stated: “self-assembled guns provide a way for competition shooters to make a custom-fitted firearm. Such weapons should have serial numbers and be registered — and any new legislation should consider such a provision,”. I see nothing in King’s statement above that suggests he doesn’t still hold this position with regard to serial numbers. Most schemes of serializing home made firearms involve state government issued serial numbers as the firearms are not being produced by licensed manufacturers. The alternative, after all, would be a whole lot of AR-15s and Glock semi-clones being almost as anonymously numbered 1.… Read more »
I’m a Patron Life member of the NRA and that’s as far as I’ll advance in the organization having seen the graft, lavish salaries, and sell-out policies that are now common in today’s NRA. From the time of our Revolution, it’s always been true that an American has the right to make, use, and own whiskey, food, and weapons. If he sells them commercially, he’s subject to State and sometimes Federal law but there is no prohibition to his making them for his own consumption. Until now. How did we come to a place where we are not at Liberty… Read more »
The activities mentioned above are only illegal because those before us allowed fools like you, Tom King, to control them.
People like Tom King have made us weak and vulnerable. He should, in the very least, be removed from the NRA board if he doesn’t resign. Leftists began a hard line approach to destroy our civil rights recognized under the 2nd Amendment long ago. It’s time to set aside those who think compromise is the way. As far as they are concerned the only compromise is us giving up our rights.
King’s statement supposedly backtracking are nonsense. At no time does he claim to have been misquoted – he claims only that his statements were taken out of context. Sorry, Tom, but those statements stand on their own. You are calling for government registration of individually built firearms, and regulation of non-firearms parts that might one day be built into firearms. You also referred to individual building of firearms as a “criminal enterprise” and called for more infringing laws simply because a few individuals may have violated existing laws. Your comments are completely unacceptable for anyone pretending to support our rights,… Read more »
I would like to believe you,Tom, but you’re still an NRA board member. When you condemn Wayne and resign from B o D and then apologize to us for not insisting on a clean sweep of the N R A, then we, the folks who pay your lucrative salary and benefits, will believe you. PM
Mr. King “believe all lawful gun owners have the right to own the firearm of his or her choice whenever and where ever they choose”, except for … those he believes are not allowed, such as those building automatic weapons. I would like him to explain where in the 2A that is illegal? He didn’t only just start “kicking the Second Amendment under the bus at this late date”, but began it day one when the NRA agreed with the “assault” weapons ban and continued from that day forward.
Wayne LaPierre and his cronies on the BOD see the NRA as “their” thing, not the “members” thing. They’d rather let the whole thing crash and burn than step aside for new leadership.
First off, the only reason “full auto’s” are “illegal” is because like for every other violation of our 2nd Amendment major and minuscule, the NRA dropped the ball. If the federal government want’s to regulate machine guns with an illegally funded, unaccountable alphabet agency and then price all but the best funded gangsters from ever legally owning them, that doesn’t mean We The People have to abide it. As far as the NRA, you bunch of self serving lawyers and politicians living the high life off the hard work of member who believe in you ought to get whats coming.… Read more »
“I referenced a case in New York State where someone was illegally manufacturing, assembling and selling firearms –including full autos. As you know, those are illegal acts. I do not condone anyone intentionally breaking the law as I believe that only helps our opposition.”
The laws you claim to have been broken are unconstitutional and therefore null and void. Too bad the NRA sold us out decades ago on that front.