The Democrat-controlled New York legislature on Tuesday passed a package of bills aimed at making the state's already tough gun laws even stricter, including a measure barring teachers from carrying firearms in schools.
The legislation easily made its way through the Assembly, long controlled by Democrats, and the Senate, where Democrats regained control of the chamber in the November elections.
"It seems like every day we wake up to headlines of another mass shooting, another horrific gun crime," Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said at a news conference before the vote. "The madness has to stop."
The gun control legislation was the first approved in Albany since Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act in early 2013, when Republicans controlled the Senate. The tougher gun laws known as the SAFE ACT passed just weeks after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. For years, advocates have been urging lawmakers to pass further regulations on the state's gun laws.
The latest round of gun control legislation comes in the first month of Cuomo's third term. He supports the measures and is expected to sign them into law. Cuomo called the new legislation "a big step forward" for commonsense gun control.
"There is a solution, and we have six years of history to show that the planet does not stop spinning, people don't lose guns, it doesn't bankrupt an industry," Cuomo said earlier Tuesday at a state capitol news conference with anti-gun violence advocates.
A supporter of gun rights called the legislature's bills "disingenuous" and said they would only hurt people who adhere to current firearms laws.
"It's a violation of their Second Amendment rights and these are lawful gun owners who are not committing the crimes," said Tom King, president of the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association and a National Rifle Association board member. The association, along with three New York City residents, recently filed against the city's prohibition on carrying a licensed, locked and unloaded handgun outside the city limits.
One piece of legislation state lawmakers passed Tuesday would make it illegal to sell or manufacture bump stocks, devices that can increase the rate of fire of semi-automatic weapons. Such a device was used by the gunman who opened fire from a Las Vegas hotel room in 2017, killing 58 people at a country music concert and wounding hundreds of others.
Another bill would prohibit anyone other than a law enforcement officer, school resource officer, or other security personnel from carrying a firearm while on school property. Under current state law, districts can decide whether to allow teachers and other school employees to carry guns in school.
The package of bills includes measures to create a municipal gun buyback program and to extend the waiting period from three days to 30 days after an inconclusive background check before a gun can be purchased.
There's also legislation that would authorize law enforcement, parents, teachers, and school administrators to ask a judge to evaluate a child they believe is a threat to themselves or others. The judge could then order the confiscation of firearms in the child's home. That measure is known in Albany as a "red flag" bill.
"It completely tramples on due process because due process happens after-the-fact," said Niagara County Sen. Robert Ortt, a Republican. "Guns are confiscated and then you get to petition and have a hearing about whether that was legit."
Critics also say teachers and family members are not licensed professionals qualified to determine if a person is mentally unstable.
"Judges make determinations all the time as to whether or not you are mentally fit to protect yourself or others," Cuomo said. "You can be, by government, involuntarily committed at one point. So government does make those decisions."
Among the gun control advocates at the Cuomo news conference were Linda Beigel Schulman and Michael Schulman. The Long Island couple's son, Scott, was among the 17 students and staff killed in last year's shooting at a Parkland, Florida high school.
A former student with a troubled history at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was charged in the February 14 shooting. Scott Beigel, a geography teacher and cross country coach at the school, would be alive today if Florida had gun control measures similar to New York's in place before the shooting, his mother said.
"Parkland would never have happened if Florida had a red flag law," she said.
Legislators say they could pass more gun control bills in the future. For example, they opted not to pass a bill that would have banned 3D guns, or another piece of legislation that would require safe storage of firearms. In addition, a statewide ammunition database, passed as part of the Safe Act six years ago, was never actually created.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this story.
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