ALVIN BRAGG HOUSE JUDICIARY HEARING | JIM KESSLER OPENING STATEMENT

Jim Kessler is co-founder and senior vice president for policy of Third Way, a progressive policy think tank which has addressed national gun policy and trends. He argued that New York gun and crime rates are favorable compared to other states, including many red states.

“If we wanted a hearing about the ravages of crime, why aren’t we in Baton Rouge or Louisville, where five people were murdered in the blink of an eye in a mass shooting at a downtown bank?” he said.

Or in the murder capital of California,” Kessler said. “Which is not Los Angeles or San Francisco or Oakland … but in [House] Speaker [Kevin] McCarthy’s district of Kern County, with its county seat of Bakersfield.”