New York governor Andrew Cuomo was on MSNBC on Monday to dispute the allegation that he and his administration have effectively “blacklisted” the NRA in his state.

At issue is a lawsuit filed by the NRA claiming that Cuomo’s edict preventing insurance companies and financial institutions in the state violates the organization’s first amendment rights and constitutes discrimination.

Cuomo went on Morning Joe to deny the NRA’s complaints, saying that it was simply a matter of upholding the law as they were acting as a “broker” for New York insurance entities selling a type of “concealed carry” insurance (which he called “murder insurance”). Cuomo claims that type of insurance is illegal under New York statute because it insures people for “an intentional bad act”…that “bad act” being the act of self-defense by a concealed carry permit holder. The governor hid behind the “this is simply a matter of upholding the law” defense, but in the very next breath admitted he sees the NRA as an “extremist” organization.

“You know, that’s — I don’t — they — they don’t get a lot of sympathy from me in general, Mika, but here they clearly broke the law. They are right that I have been a long-term political opponent of the NRA. It went back to my time in the federal government with the Clinton administration. I believe they are an extremist organization; I believe they don’t want any progress on gun reform because it would put them out of business. The majority of gun owners in this country support reasonable gun control, background checks, et cetera. And I think the NRA frustrates any progress just so they have a business line to further.”

The NRA has never supported, funded or celebrated murder – mass murder or otherwise. There is absolutely no record of the NRA planning terror attacks, mass shootings or criminal acts. There is absolutely no record of the NRA supporting the right of monsters who perpetrate those attacks to murder people. There is absolutely no record of the NRA saying or doing anything to incite violence or support mass murder. The NRA does not sell guns, murder manifestos or weapons of mass destruction.

The fact that the sitting governor of an American state would refer to an organization is literally and singularly focused on a CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT as “extremist” should disturb us all. If the Second Amendment is “extreme”, how long will it be before powerful leaders in government start labeling free speech as “extreme”. It’s one thing for Joe Schmoe on Twitter to be ignorantly waxing poetic about the limitations of the First and Second Amendments, it’s quite another for a state or national government leader to do the same.

These are the people who have the power to change the law and use the law to their own nefarious ends without repercussions.

Here’s Cuomo smugly bragging about shutting down business in his cash-strapped state.