For Immediate Release:
February 1, 2024
Suozzi Says Pilip will make Nassau and Queens Less Safe
Pilip offers up the same old NRA talking points and will stand in the way of preventing gun safety laws
Glen Cove, NY – Today, former Congressman Tom Suozzi held a press conference highlighting his bipartisan record and platform to prevent crime and gun violence, which was first laid out in his 10-point plan.
While Suozzi is putting forth common sense solutions to address tough problems impacting New York’s Third Congressional District, his opponent, Mazi Pilip, is not only hiding from the voters but even worse – she’s hiding where she stands on critical issues like gun safety and the need to keep Nassau County and Queens safe.
On the campaign trail, Pilip offers up the same old NRA talking points – proving that she’ll stand in the way of preventing gun safety laws. In the few interviews she has granted, Pilip has willfully misled voters about where she stands on an assault weapons ban. She uses deceptive language to fool voters who aren’t familiar with the facts.
When she was asked by Newsday if she supported an assault weapons ban, she refused to answer and instead said, “Law-abiding citizens should have a route to have
access to guns, but not automatic assault weapons.” She repeated those talk points once again two nights ago on PIX 11.
Here is the trick: the sale and possession of new automatic weapons have been banned since 1986. The ban on semi-automatic weapons expired – which includes weapons of war such as AR-15s.
Pilip’s own stated position makes it easier for immigrant gang members to get semi-automatic machine guns, makes it easier for someone to shoot up a school with an AR-15, makes it easier for domestic abusers to get guns, and makes it easier for people with mental illness to get guns.
Suozzi has a strong record of putting forth bipartisan solutions and working with anyone to get things done and make our communities safer.
As Mayor of Glen Cove, he increased the police force and greatly reduced the crime rate to the lowest level of any community of over 25,000 people in New York. As County Executive, he oversaw the 12th largest police department in the country. When he was County Executive, Nassau County had its lowest crime rate in decades and was ranked as the safest community in the entire nation with a population over 500,000.
Suozzi was also able to reduce crime while stabilizing costs by reforming procedures, deploying resources more wisely, and increasing the use of technology. As a Member of Congress, he honored local police officers as “Hometown Heroes” in 2020, 2021, and 2022 – and was inspired to give these awards to voice his support of law enforcement during the wave of “defund the police” support in 2020.
Additionally, in Congress, Suozzi co-sponsored every major gun violence prevention bill, including legislation to require background checks that the vast majority of Americans support. In February 2018, in the aftermath of the Parkland shooting, he co-wrote an op-ed in Newsday with Rep. Peter King titled “Do the right thing on gun laws,” – which called for expanding background checks, providing federal funding to maintain proper record-sharing systems to help report criminals and people with mental illnesses, and restricting anyone on the terror watch list from buying a gun.
In Congress, Suozzi will combat the extremists on both sides of the aisle and build a coalition to pass more effective gun violence prevention laws – just like I’ve done his entire career.