U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand today visited the Uniondale Public Library to stand with advocates and survivors of gun violence and announce the reintroduction of the Hadiya Pendleton and Nyasia Pryear-Yard Gun Trafficking & Crime Prevention Act, a bill to prevent gun trafficking, and call on Congress to immediately pass legislation to ban assault weapons and bump stocks.
According to the New York State Attorney General, 52,915 firearms were recovered in New York State from 2010 to 2015. Of these, 74 percent came from out of state, and it is estimated that 1 in 5 of the guns recovered were recently trafficked. However, there is no federal law that defines gun trafficking as a crime.
“Over the last year and a half, our country has suffered through three of the five biggest mass-shootings in our history and thousands more Americans have been victims of gun violence on a much smaller scale, but Congress has done nothing to solve this crisis,” said Senator Gillibrand. “I am proud to announce my legislation to make gun trafficking a federal crime, and I urge all of my colleagues to join me in fighting to pass this essential bill, as well as two other pieces of legislation that would protect families in New York and across the country by banning automatic weapons and bump stocks. Congress needs to do its job and start protecting people instead of the gun industry’s profits. We can never give up in the fight against gun violence.”
Gillibrand announced the reintroduction of the Hadiya Pendleton and Nyasia Pryear-Yard Gun Trafficking & Crime Prevention Act:
Specifically the bill would make it illegal to:
- Sell, purchase or otherwise transfer two or more firearms to someone whom the seller knows, or has reasonable cause to know, is prohibited by Federal, State or local laws from owning a firearm (e.g. felon, convicted domestic abuser).
- Provide false information on a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives firearms transaction record form.
Gillibrand urged CONGRESS to take IMMEDIATE action to pass the following legislation:
Automatic Gunfire Prevention Act would ban the sale, transfer, importation, manufacturing or possession of “Bump stocks, “trigger cranks,” or anything that accelerates a semiautomatic rifle’s rate of fire.
Assault Weapons Ban of 2017 would regulate assault weapons, to ensure that the right to keep and bear arms is not unlimited, and for other purposes.