"My mother dedicated her life to helping victims of
domestic violence and our family started a home to help these survivors,"
said Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul. "We've seen firsthand the fear
created when a gun is present in the home of an abuser. This new law today is a
dramatic step forward eliminating the vulnerability of these women and their
children. While the federal government fails to address the issue of gun
violence, we continue to fight to keep guns out of the hands of those who could
devastate our communities and our residents."
Removing Guns from Domestic Abusers
Previously, New York law narrowly prohibited the possession
of firearms for individuals either convicted of a felony or a limited number of
misdemeanor "serious" offenses, excluding many misdemeanor offenses
that are undeniably serious. This bill (S.8121 Phillips/A10272 O'Donnell),
which the Governor signed in ceremony today, expands the list of
"serious" crimes that require the loss of a gun license and the
surrender of all firearms to ensure no domestic abuser in New York retains the
ability to possess a firearm once convicted of a disturbing crime. In addition,
this legislation will preclude any individual wanted for a felony or other
serious offense from obtaining or renewing a firearm license. Under previous
New York law, despite being subject to an arrest warrant, an individual was
still legally eligible to obtain a firearm license even as police worked to
locate and detain them. This change ensures that the law enforcement who are
actively seeking to arrest a wanted individual, as well as innocent bystanders,
are not needlessly endangered by a wanted individual who has been able to
obtain new firearms.
Extending the Waiting Period
Governor Cuomo has introduced legislation to establish a
10-day waiting period for individuals who are not immediately approved to
purchase a firearm through the National Instant Criminal Background Check
System. Current federal law requires gun dealers to conduct the NICS background
check on a potential purchaser prior to selling a firearm, which immediately
provides the dealer with one of three possible notifications. These
notifications include "proceed", "denied", or "delayed".
In the case of a "delayed" response, the dealer must wait three days
before the sale is eligible to go through, even though the FBI continues to
investigate these individuals past the three-day timeframe. Oftentimes, by the
time it has been determined that the potential purchaser was, in fact,
ineligible, the individual has already been sold the firearm upon completion of
the three-day waiting period. Extending the waiting period to ten days would
allow sufficient time to complete the expanded background check and builds on
legislative efforts to ensure that only those eligible to own a firearm are
able to do so.
