The City Council, in a special meeting on Friday, adopted a motion to revise its lease with the City Center to bar the selling of non antique guns and ammunition. Antique guns are generally considered to be guns manufactured prior to 1899. They are exempt from federal laws controlling the selling of guns such as the requirement for a background check. This is a link to Wikipedia on antique guns (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antique_firearms
I disagree with the decision by the Council. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and former US Representative Gabby Giffords attended a gun show at the City Center in 2013. Ms. Giffords was the victim of gun violence and suffered a bullet to her head. She is an advocate of strengthening gun laws. Both Giffords and Schneiderman praised David Petronis, the organizer, for running a responsible gun show and lauded it for the rigorous implementation of background checks. One of the criticisms of gun shows has been that they have been used to circumvent such checks but that has not been a problem in the Saratoga Springs shows.
There is no difference between buying a gun at the City Center gun show and buying one at a gun store. The city has at least one gun store.
I do not believe that the end of selling modern guns at a gun show will make the people of Saratoga Springs safer. The people attending this event are responsible, active hunters and target shooters in our area who will now be penalized.
Still, I have complete sympathy for the Mayor’s desire to do something to curb the terrible killing that seems to happen with greater and greater frequency in our country even if it is only a symbolic action. This is a complex issue and the vehemence of many on both sides has made seeking meaningful solutions extremely difficult.
I am impressed with the skill the Mayor showed in achieving the ban. This has been an issue that has been a source of controversy for years in Saratoga Springs. It took Mayor Kelly less than three months to affect the change.
I think I am not alone in welcoming the quiet way the mayor has gone about initiating change.
Saratoga Springs Politics 
I agree with John’s comments on this issue.
Chris Mathiesen
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What will the city council ban next?
Dental Shows?
Tattoo Expos or Beer Fests?
The council’s decision to ban gun shows is completely nonsensical and obviously, unconstitutional.
It runs against all standards and means with regards to free enterprise.
Let the people with their purses decide.
Mr. Patronis’ business was declining anyway.
There are fewer and fewer persons looking to support his “gun show model.”
Point of fact: the older WW2 generation of gun collectors & enthusiasts is dying off.
Wake up.
Mr. Petronis should have and should be allowed the liberty to retire with some dignity.
The council’s decision is a slap in the face, an insult, to all law abiding citizens and entrepreneurs.
By declaring that all guns are now taboo, the council, verdantly, had alienated all individuals and organizations associated with guns, firearms in general and all instruments of personal defense.
Active and retired members of the armed forces, law enforcement, first responders (so inclined), historical re-enactors and enthusiasts; anyone owning or sympathizing with any American citizen’s 2nd amendment rights, are now all subject to scrutiny and distrust.
The council’s decision was so un-American, it’s not funny.
It runs against everything for which our free enterprise system stands.
The Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce (if not totally overrun by you-know-whats) should be up and arms at such an assault against free enterprise.
“Up and arms?” Hmmm.
The city council’s premise is false.
Therefore, their conclusion is moot.
There is no gun-tooting epidemic.
To put things in perspective:
It was identified (search online if you may) that over 400 individuals were killed in 1 calendar year by cell phone use while driving. This is to be compared to 36,000 overall vehicle deaths (we’ll just ignore the 36,000 for now…it doesn’t fit the narrative). 400 is a way bigger number than, say, seventeen.
Yet, citizens still use our cell phones and drive, consume alcoholic beverages and drive, take prescription medications and drive…and what?
Why doesn’t the city council focus on more serious issues like those aforementioned?
Because they cannot. The city council is powerless to act on such things. But ban a product category & regulate free trade? Bingo!
This hasty and irresponsible decision by Mayor Kelly and the council trivializes those deaths and is wrong in so many waves it boggles the mind. Especially after getting the blessing from Rep. Giffords & our esteemed NYS Attorney General. What were they thinking?
Moreover, there have been more than 64,000 deaths caused by opioids and prescription drug overdoses in 2016 alone. Is anyone listening? Hello? Hello?
Has the city council banned the promotion and/or sale of prescription pain killers?
Turn on your television and see how many ads there are for drugs.
Are those side effects for real? Huh? We’re okay with this business model?
So, ask yourself the question:
How many drug dispensaries do we really need in Saratoga?
There are more places to get legal drugs in Saratoga than there are bars.
Yes or no?
Don’t forget veterinarians.
They are soooo way under the radar.
How many readers of this blog are currently taking prescribed medication?
How many readers have been guilty of patronizing businesses and activities whom contribute to egregious behavior contributing to compromising life?
How many amongst us have patronized beer and alcohol providers, tattoo parlors, abortion centers and (get ready for it…here it comes) DENTAL practitioners?
Yes, dentists.
CBS46 News reported that Three Georgia boys die unexpectedly after routine dental work in 2012.
The LA Times ran a story as did the Houston papers and other outlets, stating that hundreds (if not thousands) of people died since 2010 from dental malpractice than anyone imagined. Many more than expected. Most all dental deaths were under-reported.
BUT: 17 students were killed by gunfire at a high school in Miami.
Seventeen (nice, prime number for those of you paying attention).
Not to trivialize this but why should we focus all our energy on this one phenomena?
We’re missing the bigger picture, people.
Maybe, the council is focusing on this one tragedy because in their obvious ineptitude on most all other challenging issues, they feel that they can do something about this one in particular?
They are powerless to affect change on anything else, but at least they can do something about guns.
Know why? Because they can. No other reason.
How pathetic.
How disappointing.
How irresponsible.
The council is so powerless to enact change at most levels that they chose to poke the tiger in the corner of the room because they know it’s chained. They know the tiger is powerless to respond. Maybe. Well, King George III thought so, too but that’s another story.
The decision of the council to collectively ban the sale and or exposition of one particular product or enterprise puts all others in question.
Take tattoos, for example.
The Tattoo Expo comes to mind.
By sanctioning the tattoo expo, the city finds itself in the position of supporting and promoting the anti-JudeoChristian role model. The very foundation of our community maybe at risk.
Are tattoos and their symbolic messages of satanic worship and death in keeping with Mayor Kelly vision for Saratoga Springs?
Tattoos and their examples of unregulated products exemplifying unabashed hubris and wanton sexual promiscuity, (including the promotion of reckless and lawless behavior) are acceptable by this city council. What about pornographic imagery?
But: The exhibition and sale of state regulated (permitted and licensed), products will no longer to be allowed or tolerated at the Saratoga Springs City Center. You can’t make this up, folks.
Ah, tattoos.
The glorification and promotion of injecting permitted, Chinese-made, heavy metals with needles under one’s skin by unlicensed (yes, unlicensed) practitioners for selfish gratification and fiendish exhibition of deviant glory is allowed. Automobile enamel comes to mind. And we’re okay with that? Yup!
Beer.
Well, we won’t go there (lol).
Dental shows?
Let’s outlaw dental shows!
That was easy.
-JC
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Surely, this could have been an honest mistake but make no mistake about this…. horses bring flies and flies bring dentists with tattoos.
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JC
The focus on DENTAL is that intentional or acci-dental.
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Oy!!!!!
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To give our new Mayor some benefit of the doubt, she is at least partially bound by the orthodoxies of her party and supporters. Those include The Anti-Gun Catechisms, which teach that only people who are agents of the State can be trusted with firearms. Wholly irrational, true, but such is the nature of “common-sense gun safety” belief driven by emotion and visceral prejudice, yet bereft of even modest consideration of facts.
I suspect Mayor Kelly hoped this exercise in dead-of-the-day virtue signalling (recall, this was done in a special session called during the AM of a workday, in order to minimize public participation and comment) would be costless and get our local gun control nuts off her back. But by a governmental concern declaring it will willfully infringe upon exercise of legal activity and an important civil liberty, it has all the more opened itself up to legal action. So silly, so clueless, and so unnecessary.
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