N.Y.'s Cuomo pushing hard for one of nation's toughest gun laws

A deal that would give New York one of the toughest gun control laws in the nation was being sought by Gov. Andrew Cuomo who, sources told CBS New York station WCBS-TV, was hoping to announce the plan Wednesday during his State of the State address.

The sources said Cuomo was negotiating furiously with legislative leaders in an attempt to reach a deal before the address.

The measures would be a response to gun violence in the U.S., including the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in which 26 children and adults were killed.

Sources said the package was expected to include new restrictions on assault weapons, stiffer penalties for using a gun to commit a crime, and new limits on the number of bullets in a gun magazine.

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Cuomo's move comes as New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Mayors Against Gun Violence released a new commercial to push for federal action.

It features Roxanna Green, the mother of Christina Taylor-Green, who was killed two years ago Tuesday in the Tucson, Ariz., massacre in which former Rep. Gabby Giffords was wounded.

"How many more children must die before Washington does something to end our gun violence problem?" Roxanna Green asks in the ad.

It would be quite a coup for Cuomo, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, to show progress on gun control as Washington stays divided on the controversial topic.

Late Tuesday night, a Cuomo spokesman said the sides still had not reached an agreement, but sources said there was talk of keeping the legislature in session the rest of the week to make sure a deal gets done.

[MakeSenseNow]

Its a shame he didn't call for the nation's toughest criminal or sentencing laws. If he had done so, perhaps the guy who killed his granmother with a hammer would have been locked up for more than 17 years. Instead, he was released to kill two firefighter's in an ambush in Webster, New York.

Cuomo is smart enough to know he has zero control over criminals. He hopes you are not smart enough to see that. So, he yells and screams and fakes outrage while calling for tougher controls on......the law abiding. New Yorker's, are you placated yet? American's, can you see through this act?

[Type_Z]

27 people die every day of drunk driving accidents, 211 children age 14 and under per year.

People drive drunk on average 80 times before their first arrest, 112 million people a year admit to driving intoxicated.


Not good statistics considering it is against the law to drink and drive. It's all wrong. All violence and innocent lives taken are wrong and an outrage.

[stormerF69]

So what Gun-Law would have prevented the shooting in Conn? When states pass laws that do not allow them to lock up the mentally disturbed when they refuse to take their meds,what else do they expect?

[TimeToEvolve]

Good deal, large states can act as examples for other of the states. I am hoping this works for sensible control of guns. And also for universal single payer health care that if it passes in CA will spread across the nation.

[TimeToEvolve]

I actually think that the federal government should mandate minimum gun control standards that each state must meet or the could exceed like Cuomo wants to for New York.

[TimeToEvolve]

How about sensible gun control that seems to work just fine to stop many of the nuts in other countries like Canada.

Background checks for every weapon sale
Permitting and registrations that has to be renewed
Waiting periods for all new sales
Mandatory safety training classes
Notification to all immediate family members

[curtis41]

Effective legislation might include a registry of mental patients, prosecute gun crimes (many are not), including those where parents allow children access to guns with a bad result, enforcing current gun laws, have our government stop sending guns to Mexico, with Americans being killed as a result. Cuomo is off the deep end, wanting to put confiscation on the table. When these anti-gun, hoplophobics and those who "just do not like guns", or would take up all the guns, if she "just had the votes" are in charge of gun legislation, then ordinary gun owners, be prepared to have your self-defense, constitutional rights and personal liberties abridged. THAT is not a good trade to make in a free republic, and perceptions of public safety are the guise for plain, ordinary gun-grabbing. It is opportunistic, and things like the assault weapon ban of 1994-2004 did not prevent violent crimes, even according to the department of justice and the FBI. Yet these anti-gunners want to reinstate the law anyway, I guess, expecting a different result this time. My sense is if there is highly restrictive gun legislation and presidential orders out of this issue, there will be a backlash and severe political fallout. A nation cannot move toward a Russia, China, Nazi Germany or Cambodia and have Americans thank our government for it. This is clearly the political agenda of many of those crafting this legislation and a fair number of Americans realize this, and not all are just card-carrying members of the NRA.

[betterusa]

So making guns illegal will take them off the street?
We should make heroin and meth illegal too!

[betterusa]

I'm all for the stricker penalties for crimes committed with a gun but unfortunately, the liberals of this country believe we should give them more rights than their victims. How about an automatic death penalty for the Holmes, Loughners and the Ft. Hood shooters of the world. Why get an appeal when they are 100% GUILTY?

[harv823]

Great news!! It's about time that Americans realized that the NRA is just a lobby for the gun industry. When they talk about second amendment rights,the NRA is just putting up a smoke screen. This is all about money.
The gun industry pays the NRA. The NRA then uses this money to leverage politicians to assure that no common sense gun laws are passed. The more guns that are sold is more money for the gun industry and the NRA.Common sense gun safety laws could mean less money for the gun industry and the NRA. TOO BAD!!

[curtis41]

Most of our some 20,000 gun laws are ineffective at reducing violent gun crimes. Common sense ideas, like putting armed guards in school received a poor response, mainly because the vilified NRA made the suggestion. The fact that 1/3 of schools already have armed guards, many with arrest powers escapes folks like you. If that suggestion was so dangerous to the security of our children, we need to get those guards out of the schools TODAY. Or, if you like, why not give additional protection to the 2/3 of the schools not with armed guards? The NRA has between about 4 and 5 million members and do help protect our gun rights. There is no more bad, if you will, for gun manufacturers to give money than it is for you to contribute to the Obama campaign. Lighten up, this is American, and NOT a Russia, China, Nazi Germany or Cambodia. If you want to press another lobby, go after the AARP, and stop vilifying the NRA and anyone who owns a gun, and paint them all as evil, with the same, broad brush. You may not know it, but a lot of Americans are interested in self-defense, constitutional rights and personal liberties, and their numbers are certainly not restricted to the NRA, NAGR and other national and state organizations. Also, you vilify an organization and corporations making money, like it is somehow evil. That is a constant affliction of the left and the far left, and it shows from your responses.

[CarsonCitySteve]

It doesn't matter what the "statistics" are. The Second Amendment was written to prevent a tyrannical government. New York, it would seem to me, is a tyrannical government. Making up laws to prevent us from living a free life can be considered tyrannical. Sodas, trans fats, guns, etc. They are telling you what you can eat, drink, own, not own. I'm glad I don't live there.

[MidRoadAlone]

You are lucky you don't live here. We are taxed to death and our civil rights are trampled on in the name of liberal causes. Gun control is a big issue, but aborting babies is legal and executing murderers is not. We have the best welfare and medicaid the taxpayer has to offer. Albany sends mandates down to the counties that are bankrupting them - our schools are some of the worst in the nation. You would think Cuomo would address some of the real issues. Our population and economy are in a free fall. Remington Arms will likely leave after this Draconian legislation.

All of my family has moved out of New York - I am retired now and will have to try to escape from here as well.

[harv823]

The third word of the Second Amendment is "regulated". One meaning of regulated is "adjusted". Our gun safety gun certainly need adjusted in common sense ways.

[MidRoadAlone]

Cuomo is an idiot. He is using a trajedy to go after control of a gun that makes up one percent of the guns in the US, and the one LEAST used to commit a crime. IF he wanted to do something useful, he could enforce the laws already in place and stop attacking law abiding gun owners. He could work with other governors and the federal government to make the EXISTING New York gun laws the law of the US. The biggest problem in New York is not the misnamed "assault rifle", but the hundreds of illegal handguns in the New York City area, where two thirds of New York State murders occur.

SeeBS syas "It would be quite a coup for Cuomo, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, to show progress on gun control as Washington stays divided on the controversial topic."

I believe this action will be closer to political suicide by gun control. When Cuomo shows up on the national scene with this far left record, his political career is done. Likely by 2016, less stringent but national controls will be in place, and New York will again be foundering under a far left agenda.

Cuomo stated he wants to confiscate existing rifles - New York is also near its' debt ceiling - and Cuomo cannot simply confiscate rifles without just compensation under the 5th amendment. New York would have to come up with up to a billion dollars to buy them all back.

New York is a prime example of what goes wrong with a far left government in control.

We here can only hope that gun rights organizations immediately challenge Cuomos hair brained scheme and overturn it in the US Supreme Court. After all, what he plans not onlt tramples our 2nd Amendment rights, it is unequal treatment under the law by comparison to other states application of the 2nd Amendment.