New York tightens gun restrictions, will no longer allow domestic abusers to own firearms
New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, on Saturday called for stricter gun control measures and said that people convicted of domestic abuse in the state of New York will now be required to turn over all of their firearms, and not just handguns, according to reports.
The New York State Legislature, last week, passed a bill which will ban convicted domestic abusers from owning or buying all kinds of firearms.
"New York is once again leading the way to prevent gun violence, and with this common sense reform, break the inextricable link between gun violence and domestic violence," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) in a press release said.
"This legislation builds on our gun laws ― already the strongest in the nation ― to make New York safer and stronger," the state governor added.
The bill, which was passed by both houses of the legislature by great margins, was reportedly advocated by Cuomo as part of his 2018's Women's Agenda.
The bill reportedly requires convicted domestic abusers to surrender all the ammunition, a previous legislation had banned abusers from the use of just handguns. The new law has also added certain assault and battery charges in its list of applicable "serious" offenses which will prohibit the offender from keeping firearms.
Domestic violence is a serious issue across the United States and according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the presence of a firearm in a domestic abuse scenario increases the chances of homicide by up to 500 percent.
FBI and state crime data states that a woman in the United States is fatally shot by a current or former intimate partner, every 16 hours. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report in 2017 found out that firearms were used in at least 54 percent of all homicide cases in the country.
"The recent wave of mass shootings is horrifying, and the federal government’s failure to act on any form of meaningful gun safety laws is unconscionable," Cuomo said in the press release.
Stricter gun control legislation has become a center-stage issue in the country ever since the Florida high school shooting on February 14 this year. A 19-year-old former student of Marjory Stoneman High School in Parkland, Florida opened fire in the campus with his legally-bought AR-15 rifle, killing 17 people. The survivors of the incident have triggered a nationwide movement against gun violence in the country called "Never Again."
Thousands of teenagers and their supporters rallied across the country over a week ago by participating in 'March For Our Lives' demonstration, an event organized to call for stringent gun control laws in the country.