Paul Kirby compares, in the Daily Freeman, the positions on guns of the two candidates for the special election in August to pick a Congressperson for New York's current 19th Congressional District. Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan, a Democrat, wants to bring back the ban on assault rifles and institute universal background checks on gun purchasers. Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, a Republican, did not list any specific legislation he would back to address the problem. “We must also institute universal background checks, ban bump stocks and high-capacity magazines, prevent straw purchases, close gun-show loopholes, and institute red flag laws and no-buy lists for domestic abusers and suspected terrorists,” Ryan said. “Americans universally support these measures and they deserve representatives with the backbone to take on the gun lobby and deliver actual results.” Molinaro did not use the word gun in his response to the murder of 19 children and two adults at an elementary school in Texas. "It is imperative we attack the root of the problem here; reducing isolation and fighting hatred by building a community of inclusion. It’s what we’ve done in Dutchess County for a decade," he said. The Just Facts website reports that Molinaro, in 2018, had a 92 percent rating from the National Rifle Association. In 2018 Molinaro also had a 100 percent rating from the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association. And New Yorkers Against Gun Violence gave Molinaro an F rating in 2008. Read more about this story in the Daily Freeman.