The letter below challenges Governor Cuomo to repeat, in his capacity as an attorney and under color of legal advice, his implication that the Second Amendment applies only to sporting uses of firearms. Remington is advised to leave New York, and take its skilled workers and high-wage manufacturing jobs with it. It will be published by the American Thinker, and sent to Remington and the United Mine Workers, upon delivery to Mr. Cuomo via certified mail.

To: The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo
Governor of New York State
NYS State Capitol Building
Albany, NY 12224

Item  delivered on February 19 2013 per certified mail electronic tracking

cc: Mr. Paul A. Miller, Executive Chairman

Remington Arms Company, LLC
870 Remington Drive
P.O. Box 700
Madison, NC  27025-0700

cc: American Thinker (editor@americanthinker.com)

cc: United Mine Workers District 2 and UMWA 717 via Facebook

Dear Governor Cuomo,

Your January State of the Union included the following words: "No one hunts with an assault rifle. No one needs 10 bullets to kill a deer." I agree with this; if a hunter cannot kill his meal humanely with one bullet, he shouldn't take the shot.

The Second Amendment does not, however, apply to hunting, and you know this because you went to law school. Your implication that the Second Amendment applies only to sporting applications of firearms is therefore a knowing, willful, and deliberate lie by omission. The same goes for your fellow "gun control" advocate, Barack Obama, and his photo-op with a shotgun and some clay pigeons.

I'll put it to you straight, Governor. Nobody has a legitimate need for ten or even five bullets to kill a deer, but a law-abiding citizen might easily need more than ten bullets to stop a violent felony; self-defense that is sanctioned both by common sense and also your state's penal code. If police officers have a legitimate need for weapons with this capability, then so do ordinary citizens because the application is identical. The only difference is that the officer has the duty and authority to intervene in situations that an ordinary citizen should or even must avoid.

New York's so-called SAFE law, which bans magazines larger than 7 rounds, therefore constitutes strong evidence that neither you nor your Legislature even consulted law enforcement and other professionals about realistic self-defense contingencies such as (1) failure to stop the assailant and (2) multiple assailants [1]. This makes New York's government every bit as dangerously incompetent as a quack who practices medicine on unsuspecting patients. There are laws against medical quackery, but it is up to New York's voters to remove dangerously incompetent legislators.

Your deceptive-by-omission statement, "No one needs 10 bullets to kill a deer," meanwhile exemplifies the dishonesty that pervades the anti-Second Amendment camp. I do not believe that you would make the same public statement, in your capacity as an attorney and under color of legal advice for which you would then be professionally accountable, to the effect that the Second Amendment covers only sporting uses of firearms. I accordingly challenge you to do exactly that, and the American Thinker (editor@americanthinker.com) has agreed to publish your response, if any. Readers and voters can form their own conclusions from a non-response.

Advice to Remington

New York State, under the leadership of Mario and Andrew Cuomo, and Eliot Spitzer aka Emperor's Club VIP Client 9, has a long history of enmity to reputable firearm manufacturers. This enmity includes Andrew Cuomo's and Client 9's orchestration of lawsuits against reputable gun manufacturers for allegedly marketing firearms to "children and criminals," even they know fully well that gun makers distribute their products via federally licensed dealers [2]. FFL dealers, in turn, do not sell weapons to criminals or minors if they value their licenses and possibly their freedom.

I am not an attorney and cannot give legal advice, but the arguments that then-HUD Secretary Cuomo and Client 9 used come across as less than honest. I refer specifically to the statements,

The suit charges that while on notice through trace requests by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms that their distribution mechanisms routinely channel guns to criminals, the defendant manufacturers and wholesalers continued providing an endless supply through the same means.

...Bar companies from supplying retailers who have a track record of selling to criminals;

If BATFE had proof, as opposed to mere suspicion, that a FFL retailer had a "track record of selling to criminals," it had both the duty and the authority to revoke that dealer's license, which would have cut off that dealer's supply of weapons conclusively and also banned it from selling its inventory to the public. BATFE was apparently not doing its job to the satisfaction of Mr. Cuomo and Client 9, who then apparently sought to override BATFE's authority and do its job the way they thought it should be done: on the basis of suspicion, accusations, innuendo, and without diligent and complete due process. It is meanwhile understandable that Mr. Cuomo might not have wanted to point his finger at BATFE while he was President Clinton's HUD Secretary.

United Mine Workers Local 717, meanwhile, needs to remember whom the UMW backed for President in 2008. The UMW Web site [3] still has cartoons of miner Hound Dog reminding his foreman, Bailey, why union members should vote for Barack Obama. This is the same President who, as leader of the Democratic Party, did absolutely nothing to dissuade New York's Democratic-controlled Legislature and Governor from their extremist course of action. The lesson is that not all Democrats are friends of the working American, and not all Republicans are rich country club elitists.

Many "gun control" leaders are themselves wealthy elitists who believe that our society should have one set of gun laws for themselves and another for everybody else. Rosie O'Donnell, who said "you are not allowed to own a gun," meant exactly that: YOU as opposed to WE. Ted Kennedy meanwhile used his influence to get his bodyguard out of trouble for carrying loaded firearms into a Federal office building. Other anti-gun elitists like millionaire NJ Governor Jon Corzine believe that their highways' speed laws apply to everybody but them [4], and they endanger themselves and other motorists as a result.

I hope, however, that when Remington dumps New York and takes its high-wage manufacturing jobs with it, it also encourages its skilled workers to relocate with it. Union members should realize that a move from New York will almost certainly be a de facto pay increase. If, for example, a worker earns $40,000 a year in Ilion, relocation to Scranton PA is effectively more than a 10 percent pay increase because $35,000 buys in Scranton what $40,000 buys in Ilion [5].

New York will similarly fall well short in comparisons to most other venues because it, along with California, is a pay-more-get-less sinkhole whose high taxes and costs of living are pure unmitigated waste for workers, investors, suppliers, customers, and indeed everybody in Remington's supply chain. None of this constitutes formal management consulting advice, but I encourage Remington and UMW Local 717 to do their own research and consider relocation as appropriate.

References:

[1] http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/01/why_does_anybody_need_a_30-round_magazine.html

[2] http://www.ag.ny.gov/press-release/new-york-becomes-first-state-sue-gun-companies

[3] http://www.umwa.org/index.php?q=content/hound-dog

[4] http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/02/felons_for_gun_control.html

[5] http://www.bestplaces.net/col/

William A. Levinson, P.E. is the author of several books on business management including content on organizational psychology, as well as manufacturing productivity and quality.