Newly appointed Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who has come under fire from her former House colleagues for her support of gun rights, keeps two rifles under her bed, she recently told Newsday.
“If I want to protect my family, if I want to have a weapon in the home, that should be my right,” she said.
An Gillibrand aide told Newsday that New York does not require rifles to be registered.
Gillibrand’s stand on gun rights has already become a critical issue during her short tenure as a senator. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), who husband was killed in a Long Island shooting in 1993, has said she is considering challenge Gillibrand in the 2010 Democratic primary because Gillibrand’s support of gun rights. Gillibrand is also clearly working to counter that line of attack, appearing recently at a high school of a student that was killed in a gang shoot out.