Hi.  I was just about to mail this letter and thought some of you might want to use it to mail whomever.  So feel free to use and edit it as you want.  We realy need to keep letting our gov officials know that not all NY'er feel that guns are evil.  

Dear Sir or Madam:

I have written this letter to voice my opposition to recently proposed anti-gun legislation.  Specifically acts:
A-673A "Children's Weapon Accident Prevention Act".  
A-2302 "Proscribes persons, firms or corporations engaged in the retail business of selling firearms    from selling, delivering or transferring 'child operated' firearms'".  
A-2466A "Assault Weapon Ban".  
A-2837 "Includes possession of armor piercing, frangible or 'devastator' ammunition as criminal possession of a weapon."  
A-4471 "Prohibits the sale, use or possession of .50-caliber or larger firearms".  
A-9280 Requires the creation and imposition of restrictive commercial practices and stringent recordkeeping and reporting to prevent gun sales to criminals.
This feel-good legislation is a danger to our country and an attack on our constitution.  
Any law that "regulates" or "restricts" the provision so thoughtfully added to the constitution with the second amendment is by nature unconstitutional.  Many people feel that minor "restrictions" are not truly infringements on the second amendment but merely reasonable adjustments to keep up with the times; but they are wrong.  They are plain and simple infringements dressed up in colorful wording.    
More importantly, "restrictions" create a slippery slope whereby if one restriction is acceptable so are others. It is the same thing as saying it is ok to say this and not that.  Or, it is fine to print this but not that.  Eventually our rights are paralyzed by small but strategic "restrictions".  If this works with the second amendment why not other rights people don’t feel comfortable with?  A little "restriction" here, a little "restriction" there and before we realize it our rights as we know them are no longer rights.  They are legislated into weak and pathetic allowances.  
Well meaning, but ill-informed, people can do much damage to this state.  This piece of proposed legislation is a good example.  I don’t support all the rights people have in this country, or at least should have.  But, I am not shortsighted enough to think that my personal feelings, or those of a group, should be drafted into law.  Just because something is not popular does not make it wrong.  Similarly, just because something is popular does not make it right.  I doubt I need remind you that democracy is a compromise.  Thomas Eliot said, "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately."
Sadly this country, and especially this state, has strayed from the rules that were originally set down by its founders.  With every new "provision", "regulation", "exception," and "restriction" we shackle to our original rights; we prevent ourselves from growing as a true democracy.  We trick ourselves into thinking we are "progressing" when we are really damaging ourselves as a nation.  
I will leave you with a quote I read that encompasses my feeling on this matter.  "How long will my countrymen allow our rights to be nibbled away? I am one man and cannot stand alone against this state sponsored oppression. It may not be in our lifetime, though I hope it is, that somebody will have had enough and make a stand against these infringements. This is how our Country was formed, and unless we collectively do the same, the Country as we know it will be lost."
I hope you will take my opinion into account when voting on this legislation and other anti-gun legislation. Thank you for your time and attention.  

Sincerely,