New York City Mayor Eric Adams is already facing a number of challengers in his re-election bid, though the mayoral election won’t take place for another year. Unfortunately, for residents looking for a candidate who actually respects their Second Amendment rights, the pickings aren’t just slim. They’re non-existent. 

NYC Comptroller Brad Lander, for example, has sided with gun control groups on gun store-specific merchant category codes that banks and credit card companies are supposed to use to identify “suspicious” purchases. In 2022, Lander applauded Amalgamated Bank for pushing the issue and convincing the International Organization for Standardization to develop the category code for gun shops. 

“Stopping the scourge of gun violence will take action on the part of everyone, and I’m pleased that the ISO voted to advance a key step to prevent the next tragedy. American Express, Mastercard, Visa and other credit card companies now have a responsibility to implement the new merchant category code, so that financial institutions can do their part to flag suspicious activity and save lives.

“I am grateful to Amalgamated Bank, the broad coalition of advocates, elected officials and fellow investors who have advocated for years to make this a reality.”

The problem is that there’s no real way to identify a “suspicious” purchase. The codes don’t let financial institutions see what was purchased (at least not yet), so banks and credit card companies are left to guess whether large dollar amounts or a couple of purchases within a short period of time should be reported to the Treasury Department for law enforcement to investigate. These companies are likely to err on the side of caution, which means untold number of legitimate purchases are likely to be flagged. That, in turn, will not only force law enforcement to waste time and resources investigating consumers who pose no threat to anyone, but will subject gun owners to an Orwellian system that treats them and their purchases as something nefarious. 

As bad as that is, Lander has stiff competition for the most anti-gun mayoral candidate. State Senator Zellnor Myrie has also thrown his hat into the ring, and is making gun control one of his top issues. 

New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams is showing public support for state Sen. Zellnor Myrie’s action on gun violence as Myrie campaigns to replace Mayor Eric Adams.

The far-left Democrat joined Myrie in the senator’s Brooklyn district Wednesday morning to promote two gun-safety bills. At the same time, Williams blasted Adams as FBI probes engulfed his administration.

“The way he’s handling it is making everything much, much worse,” Williams said of the mayor. 

… The Albany lawmaker, who made a thinly veiled critique of Adams during a church visit Sunday, is hoping the state Legislature can pass a measure that aims to expand the definition of a mass shooting to allow for greater emergency funding after gun violence incidents. A second gun violence bill he is sponsoring would establish an office of gun violence in the state.

“We need an all-hands-on-deck solution to this problem that we are suffering from,” Myrie said.

While POLITICO mentioned a couple of Myrie’s proposals, they left out his biggest attack on the Second Amendment: his bill that would ban the sale of Glocks and other semi-automatic pistols that can be illegally modified to fire full-auto. A proposed law, introduced Tuesday by Democratic state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, takes aim squarely at Glock. The Austrian company, whose polymer-framed pistols have played a dominant role in the handgun market since the 1980s, has faced growing criticism from gun safety groups for declining to modify a design that easily converts into an automatic weapon.

A proposed law, introduced [in May] by Democratic state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, takes aim squarely at Glock. The Austrian company, whose polymer-framed pistols have played a dominant role in the handgun market since the 1980s, has faced growing criticism from gun safety groups for declining to modify a design that easily converts into an automatic weapon.

“Any business operating in New York State must take basic responsibility for its behavior in the marketplace,” Myrie said in a press release. “When an industry knows the harm its products are causing, but refuses to take meaningful steps to prevent it, government must step up to protect New Yorkers.”

If the bill passes, gun dealers who continue to sell easily convertible pistols could face felony charges. The bill defines “convertible pistols” as those that “can be converted into a machine-gun solely by the installation or attachment of a pistol converter.”

Myrie’s bill would outlaw, at a minimum, all striker-fired pistols. His legislation, if adopted, would arguably be the most sweeping handgun ban in U.S. history. While cities like Chicago and Washington, D.C imposed blanket prohibitions on all handguns in the late 1970s and early 1980s, those were still municipal bans. Myrie’s legislation, on the other hand, would impact millions of New York residents by making it impossible for them to purchase some of the most common and popular models of handguns on the market. 

Myrie hasn’t said much about his gun ban proposal since announcing his run for mayor, but he hasn’t pulled his bill from consideration either. Even if his bill doesn’t become law, if he’s elected mayor he could still take aim at Glock and other companies. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is suing Glock and seeking a ban on the sale of all Glock handguns to Chicago residents (with the full support of the gun control lobby), and Myrie could do the same if he wins next November. 

New Yorkers need a mayor who respects their right to keep and bear arms, but they could very well end up with yet another politician eager to infringe on those rights instead.