New York attacks First Amendment in addition to guns

The Examiner – ANTHONY MARTIN

The state of New York has been running a series of ads on various television outlets touting its new supposed business-friendly environment. The ad claims that taxes have been lowered to their lowest level in many decades, that new incentives have been approved to attract business to the state, and that all of the ingredients are in place for businesses to flourish.

Aside from the fact that the ad campaign is designed to slow the mass exodus of business and industry from the state, similar to what is occurring in California, Illinois, and Colorado, business owners had best be thinking long and hard before a decision is made to relocate to New York.  

The state’s new gun laws are draconian and may well negatively impact the bottom line of any business that relocates to New York. Confiscation of firearms has begun, and the current tide is that citizens are leaving the state, not relocating to it.

But the all-out assault on the gun rights of citizens is not the only thing preventing New York from flourishing as a supposed business friendly state. New York is attacking First Amendment rights as well.

It has long been said by gun rights activists and Constitutional scholars that the Second Amendment secured the rights delineated in the First Amendment, that were it not for the fact that the people used firearms against tyranny, they would have never secured the protections of the First Amendment for freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and the freedom of the people to assemble.

Now that New York has effectively hamstrung the Second Amendment protections of the right to keep and bear arms, it is now free to attack the First Amendment rights of its citizens without having to reap the consequences of its actions.

The Washington Examiner reports that a town in New York has forced the removal of the historic Gadsden Flag, which has been a symbol of American determination to fight for liberty ever since the American revolution.

According to Jim Hoft’s Gateway Pundit, a group of U.S. veterans is fighting the local city council in New Rochelle, N.Y. for the right to display the flag at the local armory. The Navy and the Marine Corps have been flying the flag since 1775. The Gadsden Flag has long been considered a patriotic symbol.

But the New Rochelle City Council says that the Gadsden Flag is a symbol of the Tea Party and has right wing connotations.

No one in the veteran’s group, however, is a member of the Tea Party.

Some of the members of the council itself appear to be carrying their own unjustified bias concerning the flag. One council member likened the Gadsden flag to a flag used by homosexuals on gay pride day. Another stated that the patriotic flag is like the Nazi flag, or graffiti, or a Mickey Mouse flag.

The display of symbols traditionally has been viewed as an aspect of free speech and is thus protected by the First Amendment. But apparently in New York State, not only is the private ownership of guns considered tantamount to an act of violence but free speech is viewed with disdain.

http://www.examiner.com/article/new-york-attacks-first-amendment-addition-to-guns