By h. nazan ışık—
18 May 2022—
Governor Hochul : “ We are proud of having tough gun laws, but time goes on, you start to see loopholes, because criminal are very clever,” said at a press conference on gun violence on Wednesday, 18 May, after Buffalo shooting that 10 Black people were killed, 3 wounded at Buffalo supermarket by an 18-year-old armed gun man.
“ We are here today to make several announcement” Hochul said and thanked some assembly members and senators “for their leadership, championing smart gun safety laws, public safety,” she said and invited everyone to a moment of silence for individuals who lost their lives to gun violence.
“There is another loophole called the AOW, stands for Any Other Weapon.”
Gov. Hochul asked, as superintendent holds a gun: “ Does anyone think this is a gun? Our laws don’t. Our laws don’t regulate this. It is concealable, they are high powered and they have a high capacity magazine and currently that is legal.
”In the case of Buffalo, I want to be very clear about what happened. With the case of an 18-year-old male who was radicalized and white supremacist and white nationalist who believes, and he was taken by these toxic messages, these racist philosophies that are so easily accessible on social media platforms, the genesis of which is being talked about on cable news networks. He was so taken with this, got in his car, drove 3 hours with one goal. That was to execute Black New Yorkers. He wrote this.” she said.
“White supremacy in this nation is at its worst. The truth is the most serious threat we face as a nation is from within. It is, white supremacist, it is white nationalism.
“The hate is not just affected our society, and how people think. It’s literally been weaponized. Because you can’t act if you don’t have a weapon.”
Gov Hochul showed a magazine, “Thought we had banned ghost guns, we have the toughest gun law in the nation, you can get the base gun here legally in the State of New York, and go literally across the border to Pennsylvania and buy a magazine with 30 bullets in it, and just attach it,” said Hochul.
“ You can go online right now, and see manufacturers and sellers, describing it as something called a completely legal sawed off.
‘Not any more!
“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.
“This is just one of these enormous loopholes that similar to what we have with ghost guns” Hochul said.
It was a busy day. She signed more Executive orders. And made an announcement:
Governor Hochul:
“Today I am signing an executive order to establish an unit with the office of counterterrorism at the department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services focusing exclusively on domestic terrorism.”
And,
“Today I am sighing an executive order to requiring the state police to file and extreme risk order of protection under New York’s Red Flag Law”
And,
“Today I am announcing a referral to the Attorney General’s office to investigate the social media platforms that broadcasted this horrific attack, promote and elevate hate speech and legitimize the replacement theory in the mind of an 18-year-old.”
Photos © h. nazan ışık / NKENdiKEN
© NKENdiKEN