Dear Editor:

HR 1565 is new legislation in Congress to expand Brady background checks on gun sales. But despite the fact that nine in 10 Americans support expanded background checks, the gun lobby extremists are working overtime to kill the bill.

Strong, sensible gun laws preserve Second Amendment rights, prevent gun violence, and save lives.

While the Brady Law requires criminal background checks of gun sales at gun stores, these checks are not required at gun shows, online sales and other venues where unlicensed sellers operate.

Right now in most states, felons, domestic abusers and the dangerously mentally ill can walk into a gun show, flea market or even log on to the internet and buy weapons from unlicensed sellers, no questions asked.

Congress should require a simple criminal background check on gun sales. The Brady Law has stopped over 2 million felons and domestic abusers from getting guns at gun stores. Now it’s time to finish the job.

Completing the necessary paperwork for background checks takes mere minutes, and more than 91 percent of these checks are completed instantaneously.

I strongly support the Second Amendment. However, this right also requires basic responsibility, and as a society we are responsible for keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people like criminals, terrorists and the dangerously mentally ill.

In addition, there are exemptions from a check between family members, hunters and sportsmen who temporarily want to exchange firearms while hunting or participating in sports shooting activities.

I urge every reader to contact their representatives today and ask them to co-sponsor the bipartisan King-Thompson bill (H.R. 1565) to expand criminal background checks and save lives.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn,Queens) came to the May meeting of the Lindenwood Alliance, in the Fairfield Arms Co-op, to meet some of his new constituents.

Jeffries told the audience that he was concerned with resolving any issues that residents had with the Federal Emergency Management Agency regarding Hurricane Sandy.

Fifty-three years ago, Howard Beach was very different than it is today.

New homes and streets were being laid out around what had always been a sparsely populated area, transforming it into the neighborhood we know now.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn) thought issues like unemployment and foreclosures would dominate his first 100 days in office, if he was to win the 8th Congressional seat.

Then Hurricane Sandy happened, and then a gunman killed 26 people —including 20 children — at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut a month later.

Even as opponents of both projects keep their voices in the mix, proposals to reactivate the Rockaway Beach Long Island Rail Road line, or convert the right of way into a park similar to Manhattan’s High Line, are both moving forward.

The plan to bring trains, or some form of transit, back to the line, which was abandoned in 1962, got support from two high-ranking officials last week.

Supporters of restoring rail service to the long abandoned Rockaway LIRR line may be about to get a major break in their favor.

A source familiar with the plan to bring transit back to the line, which runs from Rego Park to the Rockaways and has been abandoned since 1962, said it will get the backing of the two Congressmen representing southern Queens.

Dear Editor:

(An open letter to U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries)

Howard Beach took a substantial beating owing to Superstorm Sandy! Charles Park is the only green space in the entire area frequented by not only Queens residents, but by Brooklynites as well. It is part of Gateway National Recreation Area and under the domain of the National Parks Service.

Charles Park was substantially damaged by the storm, such that trees have been destroyed and numerous amounts of previously waterborne debrisstilllitter the area, including at least a derelict boat or two.

We implore you to make sure that sufficient moneyfrom the storm relief package be designated towards restoring Charles Park to a decent level of usage so that we, your constituents ( and others) can enjoy this unique urban space!

It sits on the beach at the mouth of Shellbank Basin like a ruin — a relic marking the site where something action-packed took place. It can be seen by people driving along Cross Bay Boulevard — a curious piece of flotsam that has evolved into a local landmark: Howard Beach’s very own shipwreck.

The boat that lies on the beach at Frank M. Charles Park wasn’t left there by its owner. It washed up there last month, probably a victim of Hurricane Sandy that found its way to the shore months later.

New York State’s three newest members of Congress enjoy a breather outside the Capitol Monday afternoon on the day of President Obama’s inauguration.

Congresswoman Grace Meng, left, (D-Queens) and Congressmen Hakeem Jeffries (D-Queens and Brooklyn) and Sean Patrick Maloney (D-Hudson Valley) are among 27 representatives in Capitol Hill’s lower chamber from the Empire State.

The borough’s congressional delegation added three new faces to its roster on Jan. 3 with the swearing in of Reps. Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn), Grace Meng (D-Flushing) and Steve Israel (D-Long Island)

Queens’ new legislators entered the 113th Congress at a time of deep partisan division and mounting fiscal headaches. All three promised to ignore the Democrat-Republican divide in the House of Representatives so as to put their constituents first.

Politics dominated much of the news in South Queens in 2012. With local and national elections looming, the communities were the epicenter of a hard-fought state legislative race with statewide implications.

But much like T.S. Eliot’s explanation of the apocalypse in “The Hollow Men,” the campaign ended not with a bang, but with a whimper, shoved from the top of people’s minds by the most devastating natural disaster to strike South Queens in a lifetime.

Democrats appeared to retake control of the state Senate Tuesday, as Republicans failed to win a Queens race they had poured resources into and may have lost several other tight contests around New York.

The likely changeover from GOP control would be one more victory for the party that saw President Obama re-elected and solidified its control of the U.S. Senate even as it lost a few more seats in the House of Representatives.

Both sides in the race for the 6th Congressional District say they are eager for a series of televised debates called for on Monday by City Councilman and GOP candidate (Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone).

The campaign of Assemblywoman Grace Meng (D-Flushing) said she is ready to go.

City Council members from Queens came out on the long and short end when City Council Speaker Christine Quinn allocated discretionary funds as part of the city’s new $68.7 million budget.

The funds — which can go to libraries, Little League fields, soup kitchens, and just about any other type of organization or activity — have been called both pork and funding necessary to advance community welfare.

Maneuvering around hundreds of fans waving red, white and blue campaign signs, Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn) made his way through a sea of volunteers, politicians and press on Tuesday night and declared victory over Councilman Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn) in the Democratic primary race for the new 8th Congressional District, which includes parts of South Queens.

Maneuvering around hundreds of fans waving red, white and blue campaign signs, Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn) made his way through a sea of volunteers, politicians and press on Tuesday night and declared victory over Councilman Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn) in the Democratic primary race for the new 8th Congressional District, which includes parts of South Queens.

Candidates seen as the front runners in congressional primaries across Queens — whether incumbent lawmakers or party establishment choices — all won their nominations by wide margins Tuesday, according to preliminary results.

With the June 26 primary breathing down their necks, Democratic candidates running for the congressional district that covers Howard Beach and Ozone Park are making last-ditch efforts to lure voters to the polls, crisscrossing neighborhoods and touting endorsements —including those of Queens Democratic heavyweights for Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn) and that of U.S. Rep. Ed Towns (D-Brooklyn) for Councilman Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn).

Jeffries and Barron are vying to replace Towns, who announced a couple months ago that he would not run for the 8th Congressional District after representing the area for about three decades.