Opinion
New York – -(AmmoLand.com)- As many people were headed off to celebrate Christmas and the New Year, the NRA dropped a legal bombshell that could have New York Governor Andrew Cuomo trembling. The gun-rights organization has asked to re-open portions of their 2018 lawsuit that had been previously dismissed without prejudice this past May, citing new evidence.
According to a press release, the NRA filed a proposed Second Amended Complaint on December 20th 2019, citing documents provided by Lloyd’s this past June. According to the Memorandum of Law, the documents – and other information – “paint a stark and troubling picture of” the actions taken by the Cuomo regime. These included threats of adverse government action “delivered in off-the-record conversations and surreptitious backroom meetings” unless the company stopped doing business with the NRA.
According to a publicly released version of the Second Amended Complaint, the threats were backed up by fines levied against two insurance companies that did business with the NRA, including its Carry Guard insurance program intended to defray legal expenses from self-defense incidents. The coercion from the Cuomo regime eventually led those companies to sign settlements in which they agreed to cease doing any business with the NRA.
The track record of Andrew Cuomo should be no secret to loyal AmmoLand readers. While serving as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, he encouraged big cities to file lawsuits against firearms manufacturers, using the threat of bankruptcy via massive legal fees to coerce the gun companies to agree to restrictions that were largely rejected in Congress and most state legislatures. Did anyone forget that before the 2000 election, Cuomo had succeeded in forcing Smith and Wesson to accept terms that outraged law-abiding gun owners?
The blog FinRegRag noted in April 2018, “Whatever one thinks of the NRA, it is an organization engaged in legal political speech and advocacy. Cutting off the NRA’s access to financial services could change the political debate by reducing opposition to political efforts to tighten gun laws.” Cuomo admitted as such in an August 2018 tweet, according to a report by FoxNews.com, saying that a bankrupted NRA would be in his “thoughts and prayers.”
The blog went on to call on New York to rescind its campaign, noting that the Cuomo regime’s campaign was inherently aimed at suppressing the political advocacy of the NRA.
As events have shown, Cuomo persisted, showing as much disdain for the First Amendment as he has shown for the Second Amendment over the years.
The NRA hasn’t been the only victim of this campaign to suppress opposition to his agenda: The Cuomo regime also tried to twist securities regulation to attack ExxonMobil over climate change, but saw that case dismissed with prejudice last month. That ruling means New York cannot re-try the case – contrast that decision with the fact that the NRA’s selective enforcement claim was dismissed without prejudice in May.
“People were not only crossing the lines that are appropriately drawn by our Constitution,” William Brewer, the attorney hired by the NRA to handle the legal case against Cuomo, said to the New York Times magazine, “they were aggressively determined to blur, cross, obliterate those lines.”
The New York Times magazine noted that the Cuomo regime’s campaign has cost the NRA about $40 million in lost income and attorney’s fees in 2019 alone. Imagine how much $40 million could have done to promote the defense of our Second Amendment rights, training people to responsibly exercise their Second Amendment rights, or even training gunsmiths.
The stakes of the NRA’s fight with New York cannot be higher. As William Brewer told the New York Times magazine, “If they could do it to those guys, they could do it to me. They could do it to all of us.”
About Harold Hutchison
Writer Harold Hutchison has more than a dozen years of experience covering military affairs, international events, U.S. politics and Second Amendment issues. Harold was consulting senior editor at Soldier of Fortune magazine and is the author of the novel Strike Group Reagan. He has also written for the Daily Caller, National Review, Patriot Post, Strategypage.com, and other national websites.
Yup, tyranny. Yup treason. Yup an enemy of the citizens of the United States of America. There is a legitimate, righteous, legal and final price for treason. Hopefully the Supreme Court will put an end to this crap. If not, there will be some citizens who will settle out of court. Treason is something that must be stopped one way or the other. Cuomo should be imprisoned, tried and if/when found guilty should be executed.
Arm up, carry on.
Much of the NRA’s complaint was filed under seal, so this can be all just hot air by Bill Brewer as usual. We will see! Imagine if the NRA actually spent any money on promoting Second Amendment rights. In 2018, the NRA spent $13 million on executive and board compensation, $32 million on Ackerman McQueen for NRATV and the failed NRA Carry Guard (of which a few million got funneled back to NRA executives and board members), $26 million on Infocision to “process” memberships, $13 million on a Democrat lawyer (Bill Brewer) that is feeding off the infighting, $12.5 million… Read more »
“Imagine how much $40 million could have done to promote the defense of our Second Amendment rights”
Imagine how much WLP’s costs could have done to promote the defense of our Second Amendment rights
Cuomo just looks like a scumbag dictator of some third-world country! But hey, I guess he really is!
What Cuomo did to the NRA was illegal, and they should rightly sue and win. But I won’t financially support the NRA until 1) WLP is no longer employed; 2) the NRA limits purchases of swag and other member incentives to items made solely in the USA; 3) the NRA allocates 30% of funds to firearms education and training, 50% to lawsuits defending and expanding 2nd amendment rights, and 20% to employee salaries and administrative costs.
The NRA has transformed into a cash cow for its executive team, while repeatedly supporting infringements on our rights. That is entirely unacceptable.
These lying politicians are exposed all the time and yet there they are as smug as usual. It appears that once your state, county or city becomes infested, it nearly impossible to exterminate them.
Removal of a political figure is a very difficult process given the fact they usually control the
very system who would procecute them.
Term limits are the only solution to at least reduce the risk of total tyranny but as we all know, they control that too.
Amazing that politicians with law degrees have forgotten what they learned to earn that diploma.
Same from members in Congress.
Not a bad piece, Harold. You stuck to reporting the facts and procedural history, without telling us what to do or how to think.
The ONLY reason the NRA cares is because it affects it’s ability to make more money. Their focus is solely on the flow of funds TO the NRA with a total disregard to the American gun owners they profess to defend. Yeah, it sucks to be the NRA right now, but hey, they abandoned us long before we turned our backs on them. Sure, I can “Imagine how much $40 million could have done to promote the defense of our Second Amendment rights, training people to responsibly exercise their Second Amendment rights, or even training gunsmiths.” But that would have… Read more »
“The track record of Andrew Cuomo should be no secret to loyal AmmoLand readers.” It is Harold. It’s only slightly less dubious of your own track record. Anyone else have a laugh at Harold citing and quoting William Brewer, the shyster syphoning millions off from the NRA currently, who happens to be related to the head honcho of Ackerman-McQueen, who in turn syphoned millions upon millions off the NRA for decades and was complicit in a money laundering scheme to cover personal expenses for Wayne Lapierre?… The same NRA which under Lapierre has a track record of Anti-Second Amendment aid… Read more »