New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on May 18 proposed new measures and signed an executive order to “strengthen and close loopholes” in the state’s gun laws in the wake of the May 14 deadly shooting in Buffalo.
Gun Control Proposals
Hochul said her office will work with legislators to propose a package of laws that will strengthen current gun control measures and tighten any loopholes in the state.The suspected shooter had legally bought his weapon, a Bushmaster XM-15 rifle, before modifying it with an extended magazine, which is illegal to own in New York.
“The gun the individual purchased in our state was legal,” Hochul told reporters. “But what happened was, is that you can go literally across the border to Pennsylvania and buy a magazine with 30 bullets in it. And that’s what happened. You can get the base gun here legally in the state of New York, go buy a high-capacity magazine, and just attach it. That’s what happened.
“So, we have to deal with this. And we will, we will. We have announced there is a package of gun laws that we’re going to be proposing. We have more guns to deal with.”
As part of a slew of measures, Hochul said her office will address “AOW” or “any other weapons,” which refers to a new category of weapons with characteristics that fall between rifles, shotguns, and pistols. Such weapons were “specifically designed to fall outside the realm of regulation, so they’re not subject to [New York] laws,” she said.
“We are introducing legislation that revises the definition of a firearm to include those weapons, which means we'll be able to charge and prosecute people accordingly,” she said.
Hochul also said New York’s red flag law needs to be strengthened. Red flag laws allow law enforcement to confiscate guns from those who are believed to pose a danger to themselves or others.
“People are wondering how you had the right to acquire the weapon in the first place when you are this individual. We have red flag laws in place to prevent exactly this situation.”
“Previously, current law, it’s an option to do so. And now, it'll be a requirement,” she noted.
Domestic Terrorism
The author of the screed self-identified as a white supremacist. Police have called the shooting a “hate crime and racially motivated violent extremism.”Hochul told reporters on May 18 that the suspect was “radicalized by white supremacists and white nationalist beliefs.” She said such messages and racist philosophies are “easily accessible on social media platforms.”
The incident was “white supremacy in this nation at its worst,” she said. “The most serious threat we face as a nation is from within ... It’s white supremacism.”
The order will establish a unit within the Office of Counter-Terrorism at the state’s Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services to focus exclusively on domestic terrorism.
“First time ever. They‘ll develop the best practices for law enforcement, for mental health professionals, for school officials to address the rise in homegrown extremism,” Hochul said. “We’ll make sure that they’re trained to know how it occurs, where it occurs, and how to stop it.”
She said a “Threat Assessment Management Program” will be launched that will include multi-disciplinary teams in counties throughout the state that will identify and assess threats.
“This coordination is critical, it does not exist now,” Hochul said. “It does not exist, that these stakeholders need to be communicating and sharing information ... Who heard what, who saw something? And then you get the law enforcement, and the mental health professionals, in some cases, school professionals, actually communicating about what they’re seeing. We have a much better opportunity to be in the prevention business, instead of just the cleanup business.”
Social Media
Hochul said the executive order she’s signing also will establish a dedicated domestic terrorism unit in the New York State Intelligence Center to track domestic violent extremism through social media.“We’re going to ensure that we have the best-in-the-nation cybersecurity teams to monitor the places where radicalization occurs,” she said.
She said the suspect’s livestream of the shooting “created an opportunity for people to see this and share what he was doing,” after which people would “create platforms so they can share their demented ideas with each other in the hopes that this continues to spread, the virus spreads,” thereby “radicalizing more.”
The governor said that algorithms on some social media platforms can serve to “elevate hateful incendiary speech.”
“There’s algorithms in place that ramp up and share this [hateful speech] even more, with higher frequency than other messages. So this incendiary content is pushed out to more people in 2022,” she said. “That’s how radicalization is occurring, through the social media echo chamber. ... These social media platforms have to take responsibility. They must be more vigilant in monitoring the content, and they must be held accountable for favoring engagement over public safety.”
Hochul said she has asked state Attorney General Letitia James’s office to investigate the social media platforms that broadcast the attack and that “promote and elevate hate speech.”
