New York State Senator Sean Ryan announced that the Senate Majority has advanced legislation to strengthen gun safety measures and ensure deadly weapons stay out of the wrong hands. The package of legislation was taken up in response to the May 14 shooting at a Buffalo supermarket that killed 10 and wounded three others, as well as the deadly shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
Less than halfway through 2022, the United States has already endured over 200 mass shootings, including 36 in the 19 days since the Buffalo shooting. Gun violence rips through the fabric of every American community and guns rank as the number one cause of death among children and teenagers. The New York Senate Majority is building on its strong record of gun safety by advancing responsible and effective firearm regulations to end these avoidable tragedies.
The proposed legislation will update the criminal code to make the threat of mass harm a crime; require microstamping of ammunition; strengthen measures to prevent those with criminal backgrounds from obtaining guns and ammo; allow health care providers to file extreme risk protection orders, and strengthen regulations for large capacity ammo feeding devices and body armor. It would also more broadly define the term “firearm.”
Senator Sean Ryan said, “We’re not even three weeks removed from the tragedy in Buffalo and there have already been dozens of additional mass shootings in America. It’s clear that we need to take action as a nation, but we continue to see the federal government refuse to act. That is why we are taking action in New York with bills that address many of the issues that combine to make attacks like the one in Buffalo possible.”
The legislation passed by the Senate Majority includes:
- Permit to Purchase a Semiautomatic Rifle: This bill, S.9458, sponsored by Senator Kevin Thomas, would require a permit to purchase or take possession of semiautomatic rifles, without affecting currently-owned semi-automatic rifles. Permits would only be available to people over the age of 21, and require a safety course and background checks.
- Establishing New Crimes of Mass Harm: This bill, S.89B, sponsored by Senator Todd Kaminsky, establishes the crime of making a threat of mass harm and aggravated threat of mass harm. This legislation clearly defines the criminality of those threats.
- Act to Microstamp Ammunition: This bill, S.4116A, sponsored by Senator Brad Hoylman, requires semiautomatic pistols manufactured or delivered to any licensed dealer in this state to be capable of microstamping ammunition.
- Strengthening Background Checks: This bill, S.4970A, sponsored by Senator Brian Kavanagh, requires the creation and imposition of restrictive commercial practices and stringent recordkeeping and reporting to prevent gun and ammunition sales to individuals with a criminal record. Additionally, the bill requires firearms recovered by law enforcement to be reported to the criminal gun clearinghouse within 24 hours.
- Bolstering Extreme Risk Protection Orders: This bill, S.9113A, sponsored by Senator James Skoufis, authorizes certain healthcare providers to apply for an extreme risk protection order against a patient. The bill also requires police and district attorneys to apply for an extreme risk protection order if there is probable cause that a person poses a threat.
- Penalizing Large Capacity Ammo Feeding Devices: This bill, S.9229A, sponsored by Senator Brad Hoylman, adjusts the definition of “large capacity ammunition feeding device” for purposes of the offense of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree and repeals section 265.36 of the penal law.
- Act to Regulate Body Armor: This bill, S.9407B, sponsored by Senator Brian Kavanagh, prohibits the unlawful purchase and the unlawful sale or delivery of a body vest.
- Improving the Definition of Firearm: This bill, S.9456, sponsored by Senator Luis Sepulveda adds to the definition of a firearm; provides that the term “firearm” shall also include any other weapon that is not otherwise defined containing any component that provides housing or a structure designed to hold or integrate any fire control component that is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by action of explosive.
- Reporting Hateful Social Media: This bill, S.4511A, sponsored by Senator Anna Kaplan, requires social media networks to provide and maintain mechanisms for reporting hateful conduct on their platform.
- Task Force on Social Media and Violent Extremism: This bill, S.9465, Sponsored by Senator Jamaal Bailey, creates 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.
