As downstate progressives prepare to forcefully purge the state of 80 percent lowers in 2020, 2AWNY.COM works with distributors to make this an impossible task

September 19, 2019 – BUFFALO, N.Y. – Albany’s progressive autocrats are on the hunt for their latest excuse to pass yet another litany of gun control restrictions. This time, their scapegoat is the 80 percent lower receiver.

“We’ve been preparing for this clearly-telegraphed push by Albany to ban 80 percent lowers since the beginning of the year,” 2AWNY.COM Civil Rights Advocate Steve Felano said. “Now that government agents are obviously building momentum to enact their desired ban, we’ve moved ahead with our strategy to flood New York State with thousands of additional 80 percent lower firearm receivers before progressives return to Albany next year. We’ve been diligently working with industry-leading 80 percent lower distributors to deploy an attractive discount uniquely available and marketed to New York State residents. This should double or triple the volume of 80 percent lowers present across the state. If successful, this initiative will produce such a massive uptick in the prevalence of 80 percent lowers that, by the time progressive autocrats return to Albany, it will be impossible to purge the state of these pieces of polymer without the aid of house-to-house confiscation and the compulsion of private businesses to hand over confidential customer records of purchases that were perfectly legal at the time of sale. Should the state engage in such authoritarian tactics, it would present an excellent opportunity for 2AWNY.COM to once again sue Albany and produce additional court wins that would be used to further weaken New York State’s civilian disarmament industrial complex.”

80 percent lowers are, as the name implies, lower firearm receivers that are 80 percent finished. This means they aren’t considered functional firearms by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Thus, 80 percent lowers don’t require a background check or registration to purchase. Anyone can ship one to their door, remove several pieces of polymer, install lower and upper parts kits, and have a fully functional GLOCK Gen 3 in about an hour. Registration and a pistol permit are not required to purchase the requisite parts.

The Albany Times Union reports several upstate government agents are targeting 80 percent lowers for yet another round of imperial gun control edicts. Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick is calling for law enforcement to be ceded new powers to crack down on the perfectly legal internet distribution of 80 percent lowers. Syracuse.com reports U.S. Rep John Katko (R-NY24) and representatives for U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer told Fitzpatrick they agree these 100 percent lawful hunks of polymer must be stopped.

Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple is calling on the imperial palace in Albany to heavily regulate or ban 80 percent lowers. State Sen. Brad Hoylman, D-Manhattan, plans to oblige Apple with an imperial edict he’s sponsored that would make it a felony for anyone other than a licensed gunsmith to assemble a firearm and, in violation of First Amendment free speech protections, mandate a 1984-style ban on the intentional distribution of “any code that can program a 3D printer or similar device to produce a firearm.”

All of the above state operatives would like to magically dissolve into the ether, through the force of words on government paper and threat of the taxpayer-funded guns they exclusively control, the thousands of 80 percent lowers that exist across New York State, many of which are possessed by everyday citizens who have harmed no one. They claim this is an emergency action that must be taken during the upcoming 2020 individual liberty reduction session in Albany. Our paternal government protectors insist they need to ban these deplorable 80 percent lowers because they have or could contribute to “gang violence,” and allow New Yorkers to circumvent the SAFE Act imperial gun control edict.

“Progressive government autocrats are, once again, desperately groping for a scapegoat to blame for the failures of the misguided policies they enacted decades ago,” 2AWNY.COM Civil Rights Advocate Steve Felano said. “Using gang violence to justify a ban on 80 percent lowers is disingenuous and insults the intelligence of all New Yorkers. Anyone who truly consults the relevant data will discover the truth: that gang violence and the majority of contemporary ‘gun violence’ are direct products of failed government policies championed and instituted by progressives in Albany and Washington. Gang violence is not rooted in the existence of 80 percent lower firearm receivers. Gang violence is firmly rooted in the government’s spectacular failure of a ‘war on drugs’ that has produced a black market rife with violent turf competition in New York State’s inner cities, a failed state family court system incentivizing the removal of fathers from children’s lives by design, and state-run schools that produce little more than high rates of substandard academic performance, bullying, drug abuse, and teen pregnancies. Of course, the progressives in Albany are loathe to admit the very policies, systems, and institutions they’ve foisted on the public for years are precisely the root cause of the gang violence and contemporary ‘gun violence’ they purport to be so concerned about. Therefore, they will reflexively shift attention to 80 percent lowers, because it’s easier to simply demagogue the issue and ban something that has nothing to do with the root cause of the problem than to actually solve it.”

Furthermore, the agents of the state so intent on banning 80 percent lowers completely dismiss the considerable boon these polymer wonders deliver to New Yorkers’ continuously and unlawfully oppressed Second Amendment civil rights. Despite what Albany has to say about it, the reality is 80 percent lowers provide a constitutionally legal way to circumvent the state’s clearly unconstitutional SAFE Act and pistol permitting regime, both of which 2AWNY.COM intends to substantially weaken or completely reverse once a strict scrutiny ruling is delivered via the much anticipated NYSRPA v. NYC U.S. Supreme Court case.

In this new era of ‘Hell yes we are going to take your [insert type of gun we don’t like here],’ recently heralded by Beto O’Rourke in a manner likely to sink progressives’ hopes of passing their national gun control agenda, Albany autocrats also ignore the bulwark 80 percent lowers provide against gun confiscation, which New York State will get around to eventually. If the state is unaware of the existence or location of your unregistered 80 percent lower receiver, how are they going to confiscate it? The answer is, they can’t. Much to progressives’ dismay, the U.S. Constitution and the concept of natural rights that justified America’s declaration of independence from England make this type of non-compliance with Albany’s onerous gun control designs perfectly legal, and designate as criminals all government agents who retaliate against those engaging in said non-compliance.

The true comedy of Albany’s desire to ban 80 percent lowers lies in the fact that their draconian gun regulations are precisely the source of citizens’ explosive demand for them. This demonstrates that New York State ‘legislators’ are completely inept at considering the unintended consequences of the multitude of authoritarian edicts they pass each year. In the process of instituting ever more restrictive gun control, they’ve unwittingly created a substantial market demand for 80 percent lowers. This demand has been satisfied by entrepreneurs based in states far freer than New York, who are vastly more insightful than any Albany ‘lawmaker.’

Finally, if New York State government didn’t institute a blanket ban on all standard configuration AR-15 carbines and transitioned to a ‘shall issue’ pistol permitting system limited only to the restrictions outlined in the D.C. v. Heller U.S. Supreme Court decision, it’s possible that citizen compliance rates with Albany gun regulations would voluntarily increase. Of course, ‘legislators’ will never take this approach, because it would require admission that progressivism has once again failed.

Just as state government agents will never admit their gun control policies have not produced their advertised results, New Yorkers will never voluntarily disarm. This is because the latter understand what 2AWNY.COM stated in response to a SUNY Geneseo professor earlier this year: based on 100 years of available data, government has killed 1,391 percent more people than contemporary American ‘gun violence.’ This is precisely why the benefits presented by 80 percent lowers to the Second Amendment civil rights of New Yorkers substantially outweigh the perceived costs Albany’s progressive autocrats ascribe to them, and to civilian firearms ownership in general.

To learn more about any of the above, please contact Steve Felano at (518) 852-1863 or [email protected].

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2AWNY is a force multiplier for the numerous Second Amendment civil rights advocacy enterprises forming the backbone of Western New York’s vibrant gun culture. We act as a 2A news and information distribution, policy analysis, and organizational driver for the many interest groups seeking to defend and expand Second Amendment civil rights throughout the region. 2AWNY is dedicated to assisting in the organization, promotion, and funding of legal challenges to the unconstitutional New York State gun control regime. We seek to make Western New York the epicenter of New York State’s Second Amendment civil rights renaissance. Learn more at WWW.2AWNY.COM.