New York's Next Mayor: Gun Rights for Me, but Not for Thee

Jacob Sullum | 7.12.2021 3:55 PM

Eric Adams, who recently won the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York City and is therefore expected to succeed Bill de Blasio in January, yesterday agreed with CNN's Jake Tapper that his party's obsession with banning so-called assault weapons reflected "misplaced" priorities. Yet as a state senator, Adams supported an expansion of New York's "assault weapon" ban, a purely symbolic law that has been widely flouted and has done nothing to reduce gun violence. Worse, the former police captain's role in that legislation illustrated his view that current and retired cops should not have to follow the gun rules that apply to the rest of us.

While interviewing Adams on State of the Nation, Tapper noted that the firearms targeted by "assault weapon" bans account for a small share of homicides, which are far more likely to be committed with ordinary handguns. "Do you think the priorities of national Democrats may have been misplaced?" he asked. "Yes, I do," Adams replied. "I believe those priorities, they really were misplaced."

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