In the wake of a first-in-the-nation law authorizing the
confiscation of guns from people who post a threat, a New York state lawmaker is introducing legislation that would permit "anyone who's concerned" to have a person's guns seized.
Democratic Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh, who represents Manhattan, told
New York Public Radio his bill was modeled on a new California law prompted by a May 23 rampage near the University of California, Santa Barbara, in which six people were fatally stabbed or shot and 13 others wounded in the community of Isla Vista.
The parents of 22-year-old Elliot Rodger, who took his own life in the siege, had called law enforcement prior to the violence to no avail.
"So this is a bill that would permit family members or friends or medical professionals or law enforcement or really anyone who’s concerned that somebody having to access to guns poses a serious danger to go to a court and present evidence of that, and if the court were persuaded, they would be able to issue a temporary order preventing the person from acquiring or possessing guns," Kavanagh told WAMC.
"[I] t’s not just about those kinds of mass shooting incidents," he added. "There are often situations where something bad happens and we look at it and say, somebody must have known and somebody should have done something, but the truth is that New Yorkers and people in many other states don’t really have tools to act in that situation, and this bill will give them those tools."
Kavanagh first announced his effort in a
release from his office.
Brian Malte of the Brady Campaign said a similar effort is planned in Washington, D.C.
But the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association called the legislation "redundant," covering ground already outlined in New York's Safe Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act.
"It’s a typical election year, election time piece of legislation that’s not going to do anything to make anybody safer," Tom King, the association's president, told WAMC.
"Every piece of anti-gun legislation that has been passed since I have been involved in the Rifle & Pistol Association has been touted as being the piece of legislation that’s going to end gun violence in America," King said. ""When is the media going to smarten up and when are the people going to smarten up and understand that we have to deal with the core issues, not what people are telling us are the issues."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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