Bills Introduced to Strengthen Gun Control in New York

New York legislative leaders are announcing ten bills to tighten the state’s gun laws in light of recent gun violence in Buffalo, Texas and elsewhere in the country.

The measures introduced in both the Assembly and Senate seek to close loopholes and address gaps exposed in the shootings including the role of social media platforms, strengthening the Red Flag law and regulating the purchase of body armor, restricting it to people in professions where the protection is warranted.

Governor Kathy Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, all Democrats, announced the introduction of the legislation.

Portions of the package would prohibit anyone under the age of 18 not accompanied by a parent from certain areas of firearm retailers and require more training of employees on the conduct of gun transfers and create the crime of making a threat of mass harm while other bills require the Department of Criminal Justice to certify microstamping-enabled pistols, require social media networks in New York to provide clear policy on how they respond to hateful content, eliminate the “grandfathering” of large capacity ammunition feeding devices that were possessed prior to the Safe Act, make it illegal for anyone not in law enforcement or other eligible professions to buy body armor, expands who is deemed at risk under the Red Flag Law to be prohibited from buying or possessing firearms and require someone to have a license before they are allowed to buy a semi-automatic rifle. The package also expands the definition of what is considered a firearm.

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You can view all the proposals listed in Governor Kathy Hochul's announcement on May 31 here.