ALBANY — Gov. Kathleen C. Hochul signed a slate of new gun safety regulations into law on Thursday, taking a victory lap over the precipitous drop in reported gun crimes across New York.
In a ceremony scheduled late Thursday, as lawmakers continued to negotiate the final state spending plan that is now three days overdue, Hochul put the final pen to paper on a slate of laws passed by the Assembly last year.
She had requested language changes on the legislation in a process known as a “chapter amendment.”
Hochul shared that for 2025, shootings are down 53% when compared to the first four months of 2022, when gun violence hit a peak in New York state.
Record Drop
“Shootings are down 53%, murders are down about 40%. That is extraordinary,” Hochul said.
She said the credit can be given to the $2 billion her administration has spent on law enforcement and anti-gun violence measures, and the legislation she has signed into law over the course of her term in office.
On Thursday, Hochul added more bills to that list of legislation.
New Legislation
The first bill signed into law added “pistol converters” to the list of rapid fire modification devices that New York prohibits for purchase, production and use.
According to the bill’s Assembly sponsor Jo Anne Simon, D-Brooklyn, the change will primarily impact Glock handguns, which she said are a major safety issue across New York.
“They’re not the most popular gun but it’s also the easiest to manipulate by use of a block switch, which is a converter that enables a Glock semi-automatic handgun to become a fully automatic machine gun,” she said.
The second bill requires gun shops provide clear warnings to their customers on safety concerns related to owning a shotgun or rifle and provide information on the criminal penalties for unsafely storing a firearm.
This will require that a sign be posted prominently in every store that sells guns or ammo, and that people purchasing a gun be given the same information on paper.
The third bill requires credit card companies establish specific merchant codes to track purchases at weapon dealers, a move the governor has said would help identify out-of-typical mass ammo or weapon purchases and could help catch mass shooters before they commit the crime.
“This gives law enforcement the opportunity to find out exactly who may be stockpiling ammunition, and this is an indicator that something untoward could be happening,” she said.
Ammo Checks
Hochul in 2023 signed a law requiring all ammo purchasers submit to a background check through a state police system before they can complete their transaction.
In theory, those checks should require only a few minutes to complete, but purchasers are required to submit to a new check every time they buy even a single round.
At the same time, the state system has never operated as quickly as officials have said it should.
It often takes days for a check to come back for a purchase.
Many gun owners and sportsmen have responded by buying larger quantities of ammo at one time, to cut down on trips to the store and more delays.
Monitoring Purchases
Hochul on Thursday said that gun owners should not be worried about potentially being flagged for large ammo purchases.
She also seemed to indicate that the banks and credit card companies will be the ones to identify problem purchases, following guidelines set by law enforcement experts.
“The information is collected by the credit card company, they have their compliance offices and individuals who are hired to identify suspicious behavior, they do this all the time, and if they see something that does not look like a common practice for this individual, this is the first time they’ve amassed this much,” she said.
“Maybe you would see whether or not that’s a common practice or whether there’s a mass stockpiling in a certain period of time,” she added.