The New York chapters of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, both part of Everytown for Gun Safety’s grassroots networks, released the following statements applauding Governor Kathy Hochul for signing into law a gun safety bill package to address a wide range of gun safety issues following mass shootings at Tops supermarket in Buffalo, New York, at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, as well as others across the country. The package includes bills to require microstamping on handguns, strengthen the state’s extreme risk and firearm purchase permit laws, prohibit high capacity magazines, and create a statewide code of conduct for firearm dealers, among others. New York Moms Demand Action volunteers were present at the signing on Monday morning, with volunteer and gun violence survivor Trenelle Gabay delivering remarks.
“New York is once again setting an example for the nation and taking swift and bold action to prevent gun violence, and other states should waste no time following suit,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “As a New Yorker and a parent, I am personally grateful to Governor Hochul and gun sense champions in the legislature for passing laws that will keep my family — and every family — safe from harm.”
“New York continues to lead the nation in taking action on gun safety, sending a strong message to the Senate that inaction is not an option,” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action. “We’re proud to see such strong leadership from Governor Hochul and the gun sense leaders in the state legislature in passing these life saving policies into law.”
“In these moments our leaders have a choice. We don’t need thoughts and prayers from our elected officials, we need policy and change and New York is leading the way by example today with gun safety measures to honor the lives of those taken with action,” said Trenelle Gabay, a volunteer with the New York chapter of Moms Demand Action. “Our gun violence crisis is preventable with strong gun laws and we are incredibly grateful to the New York legislature and Governor Hochul for acting with urgency. Leaders in every state and in the United States Senate have the power to save lives and this is how you meaningfully respond to tragedy.”
The package includes:
- A.1023-A (Paulin)/S.4970-A (Kavanagh) which would require all state and local law enforcement agencies to report seized or recovered guns to the criminal gun clearinghouse so they can be traced. It also creates a code of conduct for gun dealers, requiring them to take steps to secure their inventories, prevent straw purchases, and expand record keeping to assist investigations into gun crimes and gun trafficking.
- A.6716-A (Wallace)/S89-B (Kaminsky) which would make it a crime to threaten mass harm against individuals.
- A.7926-A (Rosenthal, L)/S.4116-A (Hoylman) which would bring microstamping — a tracing technology that will aid investigations into gun crimes and trafficking — to New York. Once DCJS certifies that microstamping-enabled pistols are technologically viable the bill would establish programs and processes for the implementation of the technology in semiautomatic handguns across the state.
- A7865-A (Fahy)/ S.4511-A (Kaplan) which would require social media networks in New York to provide a clear and concise policy regarding how they would respond to incidents of hateful conduct on their platform and maintain easily accessible mechanisms for reporting hateful conduct on those platforms.
- A.10428-A (People-Stokes)/S.9229-A (Hoylman) which would eliminate the grandfathering of large capacity ammunition feeding devices that were lawfully possessed prior to the enactment of the Safe Act or manufactured prior to 1994.
- A.10501 (Meeks)/S. 9465 (Bailey) which would create a new Task Force on Social Media and Violent Extremism in the Attorney General’s office to study and investigate the role of social media companies in promoting and facilitating violent extremism and domestic terrorism online.
- A. 10502 (Cahill)/S. 9113-A (Skoufis) which would expand who may file an Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) petition to include health care practitioners who have examined the individual within the last six months, require law enforcement to file ERPO petitions upon credible information that an individual intends to cause serious harm to themselves or others, and creates new training standards for ERPO implementation.
- A10503 (Jackson)/S. 9458 (Thomas) which would require that an individual obtain a permit prior to purchasing a semiautomatic rifle. This requirement would raise the minimum age to purchase those rifles to 21 and also empower state officials to investigate applicants and deny permits to those who pose a danger to themselves or others.
- A. 10504 (Burgos)/S. 9456 (Sepulveda) which would expand the definition of a “firearm” to include any weapon not defined in the Penal Law that is designed or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by action of an explosive. This is intended to capture firearms that have been modified to be shot from an arm brace, which are evading our current definitions of firearms and rifles.
In an average year in New York, 870 people die by guns and an additional 2,607 people are wounded. Gun violence costs New York $5.9 billion each year, of which $321 million is paid by taxpayers. More information on gun violence in New York is available here.
