ALBANY — Advocates for tougher gun laws are launching a last-ditch effort Tuesday to pass legislation in New York that would make it easier to take weapons away from dangerous individuals.
With just a few weeks remaining in the Legislature’s annual session, the advocates, including state Senate Democrats, hope to pressure the GOP-controlled Senate into approving a bill giving judges the power to issue “extreme-risk protection orders” that would block individuals considered likely to harm themselves or others from possessing or purchasing guns.
“New Yorkers will not accept the status quo any longer, and Republicans should know the entire state is watching,” said Sen. Brian Kavanagh (D-Manhattan), a sponsor of the bill.
Kavanagh has filed a motion to force the Senate Judiciary Committee to take up the bill at its meeting Tuesday morning. The measure has already been approved by the Democratic-controlled Assembly.
Gun control groups are also holding a rally in Albany prior to the committee’s meeting to urge that it be approved and sent to the full Senate for a vote.
The effort comes just days after a teenager shot and killed eight students and two teachers at a high school in Santa Fe, Tex.
“This is a bill that everyone should support because it will help save lives,” said Rebecca Fischer, executive director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence.
A spokesman for Senate Judiciary Chairman John Bonacic (R-Orange County) would only say that the “senator plans to address the bill during the committee meeting (Tuesday).”
In addition to sending the bill to the full Senate for a vote, the Judiciary Committee could also reject the measure or, more likely, send it to another committee for review, which could doom its chances of being approved before the Legislature ends its session in June.
Although the Legislature in March approved a bill making it easier to confiscate weapons from domestic abusers, the Senate has generally resisted taking up any new gun restrictions despite pressure from Democrats and gun control groups.
Instead, the Senate earlier this year approved a slate of bills intended to boost school safety, including measures to require police officers at schools in New York City and provide grants to districts outside the city to hire retired law enforcement as school resource officers. The Senate bills have not been approved by the Assembly.
“Once again our news is dominated by a mass shooting and, once again, offering thoughts and prayers is not acceptable,” Senate Democratic Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Westchester County). “We need action and this legislation is a big step towards keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people. Since the Republicans refuse to act we will be forcing a vote on this crucial bill in committee.”
