Gun control debate
New York has enacted new gun control laws in the wake of recent mass shootings. Will Congress take up national reform?
NEW YORK – New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed 10 bills into law on Monday intended to strengthen the state’s gun laws after recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas.
Among the new laws is the prohibition of the sale of body armor to civilians, the requirement to have a license to purchase semi-automatic rifles, the making of a threat of mass harm as a crime, and the strengthening of the state’s red flag laws which make it easier to take guns away from dangerous people before they commit a crime.
The other new laws include requiring that all new pistols be equipped with microstamping technology, which uses lasers to imprint markings on a firearm, making it easier to trace guns and raising the minimum age to purchase semi-automatic rifles to 21.
“In New York, we are taking bold, strong action. We’re tightening red flag laws to keep guns away from dangerous people,” Hochul said at a press conference in the Bronx.
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New York enacts new gun laws
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a series of bills into law. One law now requires all purchasers of semiautomatic rifles to be licensed.
“Passing comprehensive gun legislation is quite literally a matter of life or death, and part of this package includes our legislation to require gun manufacturers and dealers to implement micro-stamping technology, which adds a trackable serial number to spent ammunition,” State Sen. Brad Hoylman said after introducing the bill last week. “So literally when a gun is fired, the casing will be inscribed with a code that can then be tracked back from the scene of say a crime to the gun that actually fired the bullet.”
10 new gun laws in NY
Among the ten new gun laws signed by NY Gov. Kathy Hochul is the requirement of a license to purchase semi-automatic rifles.
New York’s Legislature passed the bills last week, pushing the changes through after a pair of mass shootings involving 18-year-old gunmen using semiautomatic rifles. Ten Black people died in a racist attack on a Buffalo supermarket May 14. A Texas school shooting took the lives of 19 children and two teachers 10 days later.
“This is a moment of reckoning for us is in New York and as Americans,” added Hochul.
The Supreme Court was expected to hand down a decision in the coming weeks on the state’s concealed carry law and whether it is constitutional.
Uvalde massacre aftermath
The U.S. Justice Department plans to review the police response to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.