State Senator Greg Ball, hasn’t been quiet about his disagreement with the Journal News‘ decision to publish the names and addresses of handgun owners in Westchester and Rockland counties and he isn’t done with the publication just yet. Mr. Ball, who began his day by tweeting, “Woooohooooooo!!! Get up! Hook up! Shuffle to the door! One day closer to victory! One day closer to more! Get ’em!” continued his energized performance in the opening moments of a K104 radio interview, declaring, “I’m motivated! How about you? Ready for a push-up contest?”
(“Glad he didn’t come into the studio,” one of the hosts remarked after Mr. Ball left.)
On the show, Mr. Ball repeatedly argued the Journal News is fundamentally flawed news organization, while addressing the various points of criticism against them.
“You’ve got to understand, the Journal News is just a liberal, liberal, liberal rag. I think, Amy, I called them ‘egg-heats’ not ‘boneheads,’ but both apply, “Mr. Ball said, for example, after he was asked to explain a “bonehead” comment he allegedly made. “They’re to the left of the left.”
The state senator also mocked the publication for hiring armed guards in the wake of the controversy despite the fact the paper was threatened with an envelope of white powder yesterday.
“In their ivory tower view of the world, which is so screwed up, they actually believe…that law-abiding gun owners, who are paying their taxes and protecting their family, they believe from their ivory tower that they’re a bunch of yahoos. They believe that they are part of the problem,” Mr. Ball continued. “God forbid they post an interactive map of those who have a prior, illegal history of purchasing illegal firearms, which are attributed to over 95 percent of the crimes. They didn’t do that. That would have been too tough. They take people who are obeying the law and publicly expose them. The minute that they get a little heat in their direction, and their names and addresses are out there, they become staunch defenders of the Second Amendment and hire mercenaries with guns to protect them! These bigwigs at the Journal News now have armed guards.
Mr. Ball also expressed disbelief that Putnam County, which has resisted the Journal News‘ request for handgun owners’ names and addresses, will fold. Indeed, Mr. Ball will be holding a press conference later today to emphasize that point.
“The Journal News can come on in with their snot-nosed attorneys and do whatever the hell they want, but I can tell you, from this state senator, it’ll be a cold day in hell before I bend to the Journal News,” he said, adding when asked if he has ever had a conversation with the organization, “There are a lot of good reporters at the Journal News. Having a conversation with the editors of the Journal News, I mean, I’d rather have a root canal. I do have the opportunity to go before them every two years and ask for an endorsement that I wouldn’t accept if it came with a million dollars.”
At the end, Mr. Ball was asked if he thought relations would ever warm between himself and the Journal News.
“The Journal News can kiss my white, Irish, you-know-what,” he replied.
