New York lawmakers are looking at options to strengthen the state’s already beefy gun laws, with Governor Kathy Hochul expected to unveil a package as soon as possible Wednesday that aims to strengthen remaining weaknesses in the wake of the massacre in New York City. buffalo.
Speaking with President Biden in Buffalo on Tuesday, Ms. Hochul suggested leaders should not just blame “hateful philosophies” that she said had leaked from dark corners of the internet to mainstream cable news shows.
“You could have that hatred in your heart, and you can sit in your house and stir up these bad thoughts, but you can’t act on it — unless you have a weapon,” she said, adding, “That’s the intersection of these two crises in our country right now.”
New York already has some of America’s strictest gun control laws, including background check requirements, assault rifle restrictions, and red flag laws. According to the nonprofit New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, New York City has one of the lowest rates of gun death and injury in the country.
In fact, one of New York’s most restrictive gun laws — which severely restricts the carrying of guns outdoors — is being challenged in the Supreme Court, with a decision expected soon.
From opinion: The Buffalo Shooting
Times Opinion commentary on the massacre at a supermarket in a predominantly black neighborhood in Buffalo.
Still, lawmakers say improvements under consideration in Albany could have a major impact.
“You just want to close every possible loophole,” said Westchester Councilor Amy Paulin.
Ms. Paulin sponsors a number of bills that she believes would help make New York a safer place. It would require local law enforcement agencies to immediately provide information about recovered weapons to a federal database of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which would allow for better tracing. Another would allow New York to run its own background checks, rather than outsource the process to the FBI
Other measures would place new demands on arms dealers, including better administration and more staff training.
But proponents have questioned whether New York’s existing laws could be better implemented.
For example, under New York’s so-called red flag law, family members, school officials, and law enforcement officers can ask a court to remove guns from the home of a person at high risk to harm themselves or others and prevent them from buying new ones — a ban that can take up to a year. But the law was not invoked against the suspect in the Buffalo attack, even after his murder and suicide threat alarmed a school official enough to alert the police.
“There was a malfunction here, but it wasn’t a malfunction of the law — it was a malfunction of the law,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit that advocates gun violence. He and others are pushing for more robust training for law enforcement officers and school administrators to know when to use the extreme risk law.
David Pucino, deputy chief counsel at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, agrees.
“This really robust policy was not used and it should have been,” he said. Mr. Pucino supports legislation that would restrict the sale of guns to people under 21, similar to the one Florida enacted after a mass shooting at a school in Parkland in 2018. But he emphasized the challenge of addressing an issue like gun violence. addressed at the local level.
“No single law can solve all problems,” said Mr Pucino. “Especially a state law.”