Editorial
Shooting-range fundraiser for Assemblyman Steve Katz way off target
Photo credit: Leslie Barbaro | Assemb. Steve Katz at the 10th annual Walk to Defeat ALS at Tibbetts Brook Park in Yonkers. Katz was ticketed for speeding and marijuana possession Thursday in Albany County, according to State Police. (July 31, 2012)
Gun-themed fundraiser creates controversy for politicianAssemb. Steve Katz, a Republican seeking re-election in Westchester and Putnam counties, has been known as a straight shooter when dealing with issues affecting taxpayers. But one has to question his political aim when he has a fundraiser touting drinking and shooting -- notably with AK-47s.
Katz and his wife Nicole invited 2,200 people via Facebook to join him at the Paladin Center in Carmel Tuesday night where, for $200 or $250, guests could shoot AK-47s, rifles, M4s and an assortment of Glock handguns. For $500, guests could participate in live demonstrations of a virtual drug raid and terrorist response, and demonstrations of explosives.
When criticism surfaced this week, organizers and the facility owner said that it would all be simulated -- no actual shots would be fired. Yet, even one of Katz's headline guests, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre), bailed. You can't really blame him.
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Inappropriate, unnecessary and creepy were how some political insiders -- including Republicans -- characterized the event. Insensitive and in poor taste also come to mind. Especially after the mass movie-theater shootings in Aurora, Colo.
Katz faces a challenger in the Republican primary and, if he wins, a Democrat in November in a newly drawn district that includes parts of Somers and Yorktown in Westchester County and Carmel, Patterson, Putnam Valley and Southeast in Putnam County.
Sure, a conversation about guns is in order in this country, but a political fundraiser of this kind isn’t the place -- besides, from the looks of the invitation, a mere conversation wasn’t on the schedule.
Katz misses his mark with this one.
