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Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton (D/WF-125th AD) has announced her support of a package of gun measures that she thinks New York should enact into law at the start of the new legislative session next week. The package includes a ban on semi-automatic weapons, such as the Bushmaster .223 caliber rifle that was used at both the Webster, New York shooting that killed two firefighters and seriously injured two others, and the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, CT, where twenty young school children and six teachers and administrators were gunned down. She said that in the wake of these tragedies, these measures are urgently needed.

“The events that occurred in New York and Connecticut using the same Bushmaster semi-automatic weapon, are national tragedies. I grieve, as most Americans and New Yorkers do, for precious lives lost in both of these deadly attacks, and also for the hundreds of US deaths from gun violence since those two highly-publicized shootings,” Lifton said.

Lifton explained that New York State first enacted a ban on assault weapons in 2000, but the gun manufacturers found loopholes in our law and worked their way around it. “It will, no doubt, shock most New Yorkers to learn that the incredibly-destructive Bushmaster assault rifle is, consequently, legal in New York.” Lifton said. “We have to close these deadly loopholes in our law. The Assembly has passed a bill to close these loopholes three times since 2008, and I hope the Governor and Senate will join us in enacting law that would take this weapon of war off our streets and out of the hands of civilians.“

Lifton signed onto a letter to legislative leaders with over 76 other state legislators in the wake of the horrific Sandy Hook massacre of school children. The letter, authored by Assemblymembers Michelle Schimel and Brian Kavanagh and Senator Eric Adams, calls for the closing of the “semi-automatic loophole,” universal background checks, micro-stamping, limits on gun purchases, and other measures to help restrict the sale and use of dangerous weaponry.

Lifton said she understands the importance of firearms to hunters and law-abiding gun owners, and she strongly supports their right to have such standard firearms. “But,” Lifton pointed out, “the package of bills my colleagues and I are proposing is aimed at banning weapons of war, keeping all firearms away from people who shouldn’t have access to any guns, to the degree possible, and helping to track criminal use of weapons.”

“Of course, we need the federal government to ban these weapons of war nationwide, and we need federal action to deal with the serious and continuing problem of illegal guns coming from other states. But, while we await federal action, I hope all parties in state government will move quickly to do everything we can to try to prevent further horrendous gun violence in New York,” concluded Lifton.

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