New York’s Stricter Gun Control Bills Are Signed Into Law
With the stroke of a pen, New York’s already tough gun laws have become tougher.
Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul June 6 signed ten measures into law that, among other changes, increase the legal purchase age for semiautomatic rifles to 21, revises the Red Flag law to allow courts to temporarily take guns away from people who may be a threat and holding social media responsible to monitor and report hateful speech on their platforms.
In signing the measures, Hochul announced “Enough of the bloodshed” and ‘thoughts and prayers’ won’t fix gun violence as gun control factions continue to fight gun rights advocates.
Hochul asked: “when did we become a nation that reveres the right to have the ability to possess a gun over the right of a child to stay alive?”
The Democrat also declared the days when a an 18-year-old can walk in to a gun shop on their birthday and walk out with an AR-15 are over.
As for claims of government overreach and over-regulation, Hochul pointed out legislation passed 60 years ago requiring seat belts in cars and vehicle safety measures have prevented child deaths and people got used to it. Now gun violence has replaced auto accidents as the leading cause of childhood death and Hochul says it was clear legislation was needed in this case to preserve life as well.
The bills were passed last week by the New York State legislature days after a racially motivated mas shooting in Buffalo and the murder of elementary school children in Texas, both allegedly by 18-year-olds armed with AR-15 style assault rifles.
Hochul, meanwhile, is repeating calls for Congress to address the out-of-control gun violence issue on the national level.