NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York State lawmakers on Tuesday gave final passage to one of the toughest gun control bills in the United States and the first major legislation on the matter since the mass shooting last month at an elementary school in neighboring Connecticut.
The bill passed the Democrat-led Assembly on Tuesday afternoon and now heads to Governor Andrew Cuomo, who said he would sign it later in the day.
The bill expands the state's ban on assault weapons, puts limits on ammunition capacity and has new measures to keep guns out of the hands of mentally ill people. The legislation passed the Republican-majority Senate late Monday.
Cuomo pressed for passage of the bill after a gunman killed 20 students and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut a month ago.
The measure also mandates a life sentence without parole for anyone who murders a first responder. Just two weeks after the massacre in Connecticut, an arsonist gunman ambushed and killed two firefighters responding to a fire he had set near Rochester.
On Tuesday in Danbury, Connecticut, not far from Newtown, gun control advocates gathered for a rally outside a Walmart store to demand Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the nation's largest gun retailer, stop selling assault weapons.
Among those at the rally were Lori Haas, whose daughter was injured in the 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech, and Pam Simon, who was wounded in the 2011 shooting in Tucson, Arizona, that also critically injured former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
The Newtown killings plunged the rural New England town of 27,000 into grief along with much of the nation and prompted President Barack Obama to form a task force headed by Vice President Joe Biden to find ways to curb gun violence. Obama is scheduled to unveil the recommendations on Wednesday.
In a White House news conference on Monday, Obama signaled he will ask Congress to ban military-style assault weapons, require stronger background checks for gun buyers and put tighter controls on high-capacity magazine clips.
The assault rifle used in the Newtown attack is based on a military rifle and can be equipped with magazines that hold up to 30 rounds of ammunition.
NO IMPACT ON HUNTERS
New York's bill tightens the state's existing assault weapons ban to include semiautomatic weapons with detachable clips that have one feature associated with military weapons. The current ban includes assault weapons that have two military-style features.
The proposal also limits magazine capacity to no more than seven cartridges - the current limit is 10 cartridges - and requires a statewide re-registration of all handguns and grandfathered assault weapons.
It also would require mental health professionals to report dangerous patients to county mental health officers for potential action and would add provisions to suspend or revoke licenses for people found to pose a danger to themselves or others.
"I believe it is the most comprehensive package in the nation," Cuomo told reporters after the vote on Monday.
"Much of this is common sense. Unfortunately, common sense has eluded us for many, many years when it comes to this issue," Cuomo said.
The proposal was not directed at and would have no impact on hunters or sport shooters, Cuomo said.
Last week, Cuomo said the current ban on assault weapons had so many loopholes that it was unenforceable. For example, current law bans magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition, but exempts those made before 1994.
Opponents of the legislation in the Assembly argued the bill would not prevent an attack like Newtown from occurring in New York and also would not bring down the state's homicide rate because so few murders are committed with rifles of any kind.
"When emotions are this high, it's even more important to take a step back ... and get down to the true causes," said Assemblyman Raymond Walter, a Republican from upstate New York, during the floor debate.
Walter said New York's violent crime statistics show the state has a murder rate of just four people per 100,000, but "rifles account for .03 of that."
Were comparable legislation in place in Connecticut, "it would not have stopped that horrible and tragic crime," said Assemblyman Joseph Saladino, a Republican from Long Island.
The new legislation would also increase monitoring of high-volume ammunition purchases, in-person or over the Internet, and current owners of assault weapons would be required to register them, as is required with handguns.
This week, officials in Maryland and Delaware also vowed to press for their own state legislation to tighten bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
(Additional reporting by David Bailey; Editing by Lisa Shumaker, Grant McCool, Andrew Hay, David Gregorio and Dan Grebler)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/york-presses-measures-tighten-gun-control-laws-063818765.html
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