By Bryan Fumagalli and Brett Freeman
Editor and Publisher
The politics of divisiveness leapt off of the national news pages and onto the front page of The Somers Record last week (“Gun sign controversy now Constitutional issue,” Oct. 3, Page 1).
Read The Somers Record's initial article here.
On Sept. 23, The Blaze, which is a national news, information and opinion site created by conservative commentator Glenn Beck, published a one-sided article about Somers resident Jon Gibson, who posted a video on NYFirearms.com showing Somers Police Officer Larry Collura removing a pro-Second Amendment sign from his yard.
The Blaze article was published to generate sympathy for Gibson, suggesting that police violated his First Amendment right to post a sign supporting the Second Amendment.
Locally, the issue was about right-of-way laws and Constitutional issues such as due process and had nothing to do with the message on the sign. But the story went viral and prompted threatening phone calls to the Somers Police Department from all over the nation.
For his part, Gibson agreed that there was no excuse for the threatening behavior against the police by his supporters. Nevertheless, his attorney, Richard Bombardo, believes that his client was targeted for the message on the sign.
While we think Bombardo is wrong on that point, his suspicions deserve our sympathy.
On the federal level, we’ve recently witnessed law-abiding citizens targeted by the IRS for their political beliefs. During the federal shutdown, we’ve seen some government monuments, services and websites closed in a capricious manner and seemingly with the intention of inflicting maximum harm on the American public. Earlier this week, it was reported that the government closed an informational website about Amber alerts until a public outcry forced the Justice Department to switch its decision. As of press time, the Census Bureau website, which provides vital information for businesses and non-profits conducting research, had been shut down. But First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” website about nutrition was operating at full steam.
The NY SAFE Act, which Mr. Gibson was protesting, is a gun-control law passed shortly after the Newtown massacre last December. The man who committed the massacre, Adam Lanza, was mentally unstable. Likewise, the man who recently committed the massacre at the Navy yard in Washington, D.C., was mentally unstable. The man who shot Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was mentally unstable.
Clearly, we have an epidemic of mentally ill, unstable people in this country who are going untreated and uncared for. Certainly, good people can have an honest debate about how to fix the problem, including the role of guns and people’s access to them.
But let’s be clear about our history. Shooting deer was the furthest thing from the minds of our Founding Fathers when they passed the Second Amendment. After fighting for their independence from the British, the authors of the U.S. Constitution had real concerns about citizens being able to protect themselves from a tyrannical central government. Thomas Jefferson said, “The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it,” according to Monticello.org.
If people want to debate whether the Second Amendment is still appropriate, that’s fine. But it does no good to label law-abiding citizens who are protective of their freedoms as crazy. After the tragedy in Newtown, National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre was portrayed by many of his opponents as a crazy nut for advocating that schools employ armed guards. Less than a year later, the Somers Central School District and many surrounding communities adopted exactly that policy.
At The Somers Record, we speak to our local sources on a regular basis and we trust the word of Town Supervisor Mary Beth Murphy and Police Chief Michael Driscoll when they say this is not about the Second Amendment, but rather Town code. Murphy is running for county clerk and has said publicly that she disagrees with incumbent County Clerk Tim Idoni’s decision to provide The Journal News with the names and addresses of permit holders licensed to own a handgun in Westchester. For his part, Chief Driscoll seems satisfied in enforcing local laws and avoiding politics.
This entire situation is little more than a misunderstanding between a resident and the town. There is, however, a reason this became such a big story. The divisiveness and distrust that we are experiencing on a national level has trickled down to the little town we call home.
Bryan Fumagalli is the editor of The Somers Record and can be reached at fumagalli@halstonmedia.com or 845-490-1115.
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