Letters to the Editor: Zeldin 10.13.16

Weapons They Wanted

Sag Harbor

October 7, 2016

To the Editor:

Congressman Lee Zeldin would like you to believe the title of his bill “Protect America Act of 2015” and then vote for him. If you call his office, the staff will tell you that he is trying to keep guns out of the hands of terrorists and keep you safe. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The so-called “Protect America Act” actually makes it harder for law enforcement to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people, including people on the No Fly list or the terror watch list. Zeldin’s bill makes it more difficult for law enforcement to prevent a dangerous person from getting a weapon by raising the required level of proof to stop the sale and requiring a hearing on that proof, and by forcing law enforcement to allow the sale of a weapon to go through if they cannot complete their investigation within three days (called the default procedure). These two requirements favor criminals, not law-abiding citizens. But they are favorites of the N.R.A. and Lee Zeldin, and, not coincidentally, result in the sale of more weapons. 

The requirement that law enforcement must complete an investigation in three days or the sales of weapons to dangerous people must proceed, is just crazy — especially since we know that in the past this same default procedure requirement has resulted in prohibited purchasers, including criminals, being given the weapons they wanted to buy. Annually, about 9 percent of background checks require more investigation than the three-day limit permits, which means that 91 percent of sales of weapons go through within three days, hardly a crisis for law-abiding purchasers.

In 2012, the default procedure allowed the sales of more than 3,722 weapons to proceed to people later found to be prohibited purchasers. In 2014, the number of sales to prohibited purchasers was more than 2,500. Since the implementation of the default procedure 11 years ago, and because of its three-day demand, more than 2,000 people on the terror watch list have been given the weapons they wanted. And now Mr. Zeldin thinks we should apply this failed procedure to people on the terror watch list and the No Fly list! No wonder Zeldin has a 93 percent rating from the N.R.A.

Another requirement of Mr. Zeldin’s bill is equally unreasonable. Zeldin would compel law enforcement who want to deny the sale of a weapon to people on the terror watch list or No Fly list to file an emergency petition with a court based on probable cause, and require the denial of a sale only after a hearing!

Probable cause is a high standard of proof ordinarily used as the standard upon which arrests are based — not a standard applied to an investigation before arrest. Mr. Zeldin’s bill would also require law enforcement to have a hearing in court within three days, or be forbidden from stopping the sale of a weapon to a suspected terrorist. How absurd is that?

Mr. Zeldin is wrong to pretend that his bill will make us safer while placing these unrealistic burdens on law enforcement. He is also grossly wrong on the constitutional standards required for a bill to pass muster. Every time he speaks about gun laws, Zeldin would have you believe that any and all regulations on guns are unconstitutional. 

But Justice Scalia, who we all know was a giant of conservative legal philosophy, stated emphatically in the 2008 case of Heller v. the District of Columbia that the Second Amendment was not unlimited and does not protect a “right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.” The decision went on to note several presumptively constitutional regulations including laws forbidding possession by felons and the mentally ill, the carrying of firearms in sensitive places, and laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of firearms.

In contrast to Mr. Zeldin, the Bush administration supported and Congressman Peter King introduced a bill in 2006 that would actually be effective in preventing prohibited people from purchasing weapons. King’s bill gives law enforcement the time needed to investigate suspicious purchasers and also creates a system of recourse for people who object to their denials (called a relief from civil disabilities). 

It does not just hand over weapons to people on the terror watch list, nor does it raise the level of proof required for a denial. Rather, it gives law enforcement the ability to follow leads, investigate prior arrests, and interview people who know the purchaser. When ISIS is suggesting that their followers find guns in the U.S. and attack us at home, it is inconceivable that our representative would want to prevent law enforcement from doing a thorough investigation of suspicious purchasers.

Mr. Zeldin needs to spend more time actually reading and understanding constitutional law. He should consider the unreasonable burden his requirements would put on law enforcement who face deadly force every day and don’t need more dangerous people with guns on the streets and in the malls of our communities. The past results of the default procedure demonstrate its dangers. The last thing we need is to expand it and put more guns in the hands of dangerous people.

It is time for a change. The people of the First District deserve someone who will protect communities, support law enforcement, and do the people’s bidding, not the N.R.A.’s. A vote for Anna Throne-Holst will keep us safe, not just pretend to do so.

JACKIE HILLY

Zeldin’s Failure

East Hampton

October 10, 2016

Dear David,

Lee Zeldin is an ardent supporter of Donald Trump and all he stands for, and that disqualifies him from public office. 

Recently, Mr. Trump made the most ill-informed, disgusting statement a person could make — and I’m not talking about his vile string of derogatory comments about women.

Draft-dodging Mr. Trump had the gall to say that veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder were weak. Nothing could be further from the truth, and Lee Zeldin’s failure to call out Mr. Trump over his remarks is unforgivable. 

Lee’s silence and continued support for Mr. Trump is contemptible and real veterans should shun him.

BILL TAYLOR

 

Outlier Position

East Hampton

October 10, 2016

Dear David, 

Two weeks ago I wrote a letter to you urging my fellow East Hampton residents to vote for Anna Thorne-Holst. My letter focused on what I believe to be the positive attributes of Anna’s candidacy and the negatives of Lee Zeldin’s record. 

In this letter I choose not to repeat either of these aspects of my prior letter and rather to focus solely on the outlier position of Lee Zeldin, who continues to support Donald Trump. This in spite of the Republican leadership having withdrawn that support, which in the last few days has become a stampede to separate from Mr. Trump. Today the speaker of the house, Paul Ryan, said that Republican representatives were free to withdraw their support for Mr. Trump. I need not iterate at length the reasons why Mr. Trump has fallen out of grace with the leaders, as well as the rank-and-file of the Republican Party. 

My concern rather is that Lee Zeldin continues to support him and what that says about Mr. Zeldin. I believe it is shameful that he does so and that he should be rebuked at the polls next month so that he no longer represents the First Congressional District. His continued representation of us is nothing less than a blemish on the people of our district if they do not vote him out of office. 

Voting for Lee Zeldin is an affirmation of what one must bluntly describe as the disgusting, revolting behavior of Mr. Trump that has come to light in recent days. The revelation of this behavior is on top of Mr. Trump’s denigration of Senator John McCain for having been captured during the Vietnam War; of the Khans, parents of a fallen Iraq War hero; the verbal abuse of a former Miss Universe for being overweight; contempt for his moral obligation to pay taxes, and the defrauding of subscribers to Trump University. 

Mr. Zeldin should be, must be, rejected for his continuing support of Mr Trump.

DAVID J. WEINSTEIN