Yes, state Senate Democrats are end-running the committee process to push for a floor vote Wednesday on a host of gun-control measures — but it’s hard to blame them when that process is so often used to kill bills with majority support.
And one item clearly deserves to pass: The legislation to allow you to ask the courts for a restraining order to temporarily stop a loved one from buying or keeping a gun.
(Similarly, the Assembly should end its years of bottling up bills to toughen Kendra’s Law to make it easier to get the courts to require a mentally ill family member to take his or her medication.)
Such gun restraining orders not only might stop mass shootings, they can also prevent crimes of passion as well as suicides — which are actually the top category of gun deaths in America.
Not all bills in the Dems’ package are as compelling: It’s easy to see how a state institute to study gun violence could become a total propaganda factory, and the bill to encourage lawsuits against gun manufacturers is just a gift to the trial lawyers.
The ugly truth is that Republican senators still regret letting Gov. Cuomo stampede them into passing the hastily (and badly) written SAFE Act back in 2013, when he was rushing to boost his presidential hopes in the wake of the Sandy Hook horror. Ever since, they’ve been reluctant to vote on any gun measures — even if legislating is their job.
Of course, the Legislature isn’t the only part of state government failing to do its work: GOP gubernatorial candidate (and state Sen.) John DeFrancisco this week zinged Cuomo for years of delay in OK’ing school-safety spending authorized by the voters in the 2014 Smart Schools Bond Act.
Sometimes it’s hard to figure out what anyone in state government does all day.