NY Legislature passes gun control bills, bars most gun possession on school grounds - News - MPNnow

The bills include a measure barring firearms on school grounds other than for security personnel — with an unclear impact on schools' shooting programs ALBANY — The Democrat-controlled New York Legislature on Tuesday passed a package of bills aimed at making the state's already tough gun laws even stricter, including a measure barring teachers from carrying firearms in schools.The legislation easily made its way through the Assembly, long controlled by Democrats, and the Senate, where Democrats regained control of the chamber in the November elections."It seems like every day we wake up to headlines of another mass shooting, another horrific gun crime," said Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, of Yonkers. "The madness has to stop."The gun control legislation was the first approved in Albany since Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act in early 2013, when Republicans controlled the Senate. The tougher gun laws known as the SAFE ACT passed just weeks after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.The latest round of gun control legislation comes in the first month of Cuomo's third term. He supports the measures and is expected to sign them into law. Cuomo called the new legislation "a big step forward" for commonsense gun control."There is a solution, and we have six years of history to show that the planet does not stop spinning, people don't lose guns, it doesn't bankrupt an industry," Cuomo said earlier Tuesday at a state Capitol news conference with anti-gun violence advocates.A supporter of gun rights called the Legislature's bills "disingenuous" and said they would only hurt people who adhere to current firearms laws."It's a violation of their Second Amendment rights and these are lawful gun owners who are not committing the crimes," said Tom King, president of the New York State

Read more from our friends at the NRA...