Chelsea Gun Club Members Shoot Off on Giuliani

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Opinions of presidential hopeful Rudolph Giuliani vary at Chelsea’s West Side Rifle and Pistol Range: The staff and customers describe the former mayor’s gun control journey as everything from “opportunistic” to “realistic.”

Located in a concrete-walled basement on West 20th Street, the lively Manhattan oasis of gun culture welcomes customers with a doormat reading “Safety Starts Here” and a wall of press clippings. Once inside, they can take a training course or fire a .22-caliber rifle at one of 14 shooting lanes. The range, which doubles as a gun retailer, has been open for more than 35 years. Owner Bob Derrig, 67, says about a third of his clientele is law enforcement professionals and that the remainder is a diverse mix.

Mr. Derrig, a registered Republican who describes himself as a hard-line conservative, is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association and suspicious of Mr. Giuliani’s evolution on gun control.

“He’s just another politician jumping on the bandwagon, trying to quiet down the NRA before the election,” Mr. Derrig said. “They have no morals as long as they get someone to vote for them. It’s just disgusting.”

Speaking to the NRA last month, Mr. Giuliani said he now opposed new restrictions on guns, seeing the right to bear arms as “just as important a part of the Constitution as the right to free speech.” Distancing himself from some of his most prominent policies as mayor, Mr. Giuliani said an ongoing lawsuit the city brought against gun manufacturers in 2000 “has taken several turns and several twists that I don’t agree with.”

The speech provoked the ire of Mayor Bloomberg, who said the suit “has not changed at all.” Mr. Bloomberg is also lobbying against the Tiahrt Amendments, a series of federal laws that restricts local access to federal gun trace data, which the advocacy group Mayors Against Illegal Guns says hinders local authorities from preventing traffic in illegal weapons.

Mr. Giuliani told the NRA the amendment was “sensible.”

According to Mr. Derrig, however, Messrs. Giuliani and Bloomberg are “basically the same, because they thought the same basic way on guns.”

“Let’s face it,” Mr. Derrig continued, Mr. Giuliani is “the one that started the lawsuits.” The suit, which accuses two dozen gun manufacturers of failing to prevent illegal firearms sales or adequately provide safety features for guns, will cost people their jobs only if it succeeds, Mr. Derrig said: “If Bloomberg can’t understand that, then I don’t know how the hell he made $5 billion.”

Another staff member, heavily tattooed firearms instructor John Aaron, also took a harsh view of the former and current mayors. “They’re like chameleons, they’re opportunists,” Mr. Aaron said. “They sniff how many votes they’ll get and change their views.”

Mr. Aaron, who describes himself as a political independent, said he trusts “Tony Soprano more than I trust Giuliani,” and

did not see New York City’s “gun control plight” improving if Mr. Giuliani were elected president. The former mayor did have some fans among the range’s customers, who made conversation over the booming gunfire in the next room. Jim Surdo, 59, said he worked in the U.S. Marshall’s office when Mr. Giuliani was a U.S. attorney and considered him “an excellent mayor.”

“Giuliani was right on point,” he said of the former mayor’s NRA speech. “He was giving a realistic approach to gun ownership in the U.S. It’s not the legal gun owners we have problems with.” Despite being a registered Democrat, Mr. Surdo said he would consider voting for Mr. Giuliani as president.

Another fan, Corrections Officer John Liu, said he thinks New York’s tough gun ownership laws are appropriate and said he worries more about the importation of illegal weapons into the city. Mr. Liu said he likes Mr. Giuliani’s emphasis on cracking down on illegal firearms.


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