New York gun bill requires 3 years of social media account vetting | Hacker News Reader

New York gun bill requires 3 years of social media account vetting

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Meanwhile in Japan. To legally get a gun you must:

1. Join a hunting or shooting club.

2. Take a firearm class and pass a written exam, which is held up to three times a year.

3. Get a doctor’s note saying you are mentally fit and do not have a history of drug abuse.

4. Apply for a permit to take firing training, which may take up to a month.

5. Describe in a police interview why you need a gun.

6. Pass a review of your criminal history, gun possession record, employment, involvement with organized crime groups, personal debt and relationships with friends, family and neighbors.

7. Apply for a gunpowder permit.

8. Take a one-day training class and pass a firing test.

9. Obtain a certificate from a gun dealer describing the gun you want.

10. Buy a gun safe and an ammunition locker that meet safety regulations.

11. Allow the police to inspect your gun storage.

12. Pass an additional background review.

13. Buy a gun.

source: https://www.fastcompany.com/90162749/its-absurdly-easy-to-bu...

Whether or not you think people should have guns is a separate issue from using social media vetting to prevent people from exercising constitutionally-protected rights.

If they tried to do this with voting, would you compare with other countries where it's still harder to vote?

Who deems you of proper character from vetting your social media accounts? What is the test for this and how is it not opinionated for the so-called rules being applied?

what if you don't have any social media accounts?

That would make you standout from the crowd and would become a person of interest. What are you hiding?

Some of the proposed changes seem reasonable, like checking for lack of convictions and completion of firearms safety training. The social media requirement is poorly defined and the phrase which immediately springs to mind is 'void for vagueness.'

People really need to understand that "bill filed" or "amendment filed" doesn't mean much, especially if it's just filed and not debated or voted on. Getting outraged over this sort of thing is silly because like you said, it'll never make it.

Outlandish bills and amendments are filed all the time to let somebody say "see, I tried!" to their constituency a lobbyist. Or to give someone something to offer to drop in negotiation, or the other side something to object to and get as a concession ("see, those evil liberals wanted you to have to submit your facebook account!")

This is all a big, carefully choreographed dance put on by the majority and minority leaders. The more junior the rep, the more likely whatever they're doing is directly whatever the party leadership wanted them to do, because they're desperate to get more power and influence. If they play along and they get better committee appointments, promises to give them actions they can take back to their district, pork, support in the next election...

>Getting outraged over this sort of thing is silly because like you said, it'll never make it.

It was signed into law by Governor Hochul yesterday.[0]

0. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-signs-landm...

Indeed - perhaps calling it a bill rather than a law in the headline caused people to assume it was inconsequential. I was looking ahead to likely challenges in court.

That's fair. To be honest, I didn't realize the bill was signed into law when I made the thread.

The NY legislature just wants to be slapped down by the SCOTUS again…

There needs to be some type of blowback for this government waste.

Bill S51001 https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/bills/2021/S51001

What does this even mean social media account vetting? Like facebook. Or one of my several anonymous reddit accounts? How will they know what I use for social media?

>Knowingly providing false information will be sufficient cause to deny this application and constitutes a crime punishable by fine, imprisonment, or both.

https://troopers.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2020/12/ppb-3...

So if I genuinely don't use social media I wouldn't be able to own a gun in New York?

hacker news probably counts as "social media" ;)

They'd deny me in a heartbeat based on this account.

I think that's the point. The idea is to come up with every reason to deny people. It's a backdoor handgun ban unless you're wealthy and well connected enough to deserve one.

If I were wealthy enough to pay my way in I'd be really ticked off at all the other requirements.

Start farming a bunch of aggressively mundane and neutral accounts now. They'll be worth something in 3 years!

Sounds like a Chinese social credit system.

You can still use cash, just wait a little bit.

Turns out privacy is important.

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