(HorizonPost.com) – As the United States remains domestically in an intense cold cultural and political battle, significant focus has shifted in many regards to state gubernatorial and legislative elections. While the Federal government undoubtedly has an impact on the everyday lives of American citizens, the legislative bodies within each individual state and the policies promoted by various governors play a more sizeable and direct role in ordinary affairs of the average citizen. America is by design a uniquely decentralized nation in terms of gubernatorial structure, and the system of federalism, carefully constructed by the founding fathers, created a systematic distribution of power between federal, state and local governments. Many of the policies enacted in statehouses across the union, in both economic and social terms, result in every state having a different cultural dichotomy and fiscal characteristics than others. One topic of contention across the nation is that of the second amendment, firearm usage and ownership.
While there are several federal regulations surrounding firearms, the majority of the decision making regarding private ownership and usage takes place at the state level. State lawmakers have sizeable authority regarding the issue. In New York, a state dominated by progressive democrats at every level of government, a new law is set to take effect which would impose new taxes on firearms and establish a state-wide database of gun owners. Three Republican federal congressional representatives from New York, including Elise Stefanik, asked Governor Kathy Hochul to halt the legislation and claim the new law is unconstitutional.
The law creates a new database directly handled by the New York State police. New forms of taxation would be imposed as background checks are required for every gun purchase regardless of previous inquiries, no matter how recent. Additionally, a background check would even be required for every purchase of ammunition! Earlier in the year, state lawmakers proposed new taxes on ammunition, with the amount of taxation varying by caliber size.
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