Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces Major Reduction in Gun Violence and Signs Legislation Strengthening New York's Nation-Leading Gun Laws

Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces Major Reduction in Gun Violence and Signs Legislation Strengthening New York's Nation-Leading Gun Laws

Alongside former U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords, New York government officials and other gun safety advocates, Governor Kathy Hochul today announced that gun violence in New York State has declined 47 percent since she took office in 2021. Governor Hochul also signed a package of six bills that will strengthen New York's nation-leading gun laws by requiring gun sellers to post tobacco-style safety warnings, taking action against dangerous "pistol convertors" and providing other new tools and resources to help protect more New Yorkers from gun violence.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Today, we reaffirm our commitment to a safer New York, a continuation of our nonstop efforts to ensure we live in a place where people can be free from gun violence. But before that, I want to take a moment and talk about heroism, something commonly associated with the extraordinary leaders in our state, those who put on a uniform, our police officers, our state police who are here.

NYPD, people who put on a uniform to defend us overseas, firefighters, first responders. Those are the individuals you normally associate with the word heroes and heroism. But today, I want to acknowledge and honor the incredible heroism of one individual, Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, and every other survivor of gun violence who have turned tragedy into success and triumph.

I want to applaud all of them, all of our advocates who are here today. Gabby Giffords is a survivor who used her experience as a member of Congress, her platform, and her voice to support common sense gun safety legislation all over America, including our efforts here today. And when I look out in the crowd, I see so many other faces, so many colleagues and friends who've been on this journey with us.

All the incredible organizations represented who put us to work and hold us accountable. They're the change makers and the life savers. New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, led by Rebecca Fischer. Let's give them a round of applause.

Where are my Moms Who Demand Action? Students Who Demand Action. Individuals like Linda Beigel Schulman, who has joined us here today. What an incredible champion she is as well. Brady United. EveryTown For Gun Safety. And so many others that are part of the grassroots effort at the community level. I just want to say this.

You inspire me every single day. And there are others I want to acknowledge here today. We are joined by our Attorney General, Letitia James, who's fearless in her fight to take on the perpetrators of gun violence and the manufacturers. Thank you. Thank you for your leadership. Representative Jerry Nadler, another champion for legislation in our nation's capital.

To all my colleagues in the Assembly and Senate, led by Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins and Speaker Carl Heastie, who have been recognized here today, please stand up because you are the ones who help make this happen every single day. Thank you. Our leaders in the legislature, thank you.

And some of the advocates you'll be hearing from momentarily. John Feinblatt, EveryTown for Gun Safety, and Trevon Bosley, March for Our Lives. I want them to be welcome when they come up on the stage in a few moments. And of course, Gabby Giffords, who I'll be proud to introduce.

But here are some chilling statistics. A child in America is more likely to be killed by a gun than to die from a disease or malnutrition. Americans are more likely to die from a bullet than in a car accident. And also we know this so well. Every person whose own life is cut short by one of these weapons of violence, a gun. There's an entire community that's left to pick up the pieces and live with the searing pain and the loss.

The community of their family, the immediate family, children, parents, siblings. Too many families that are left with that empty seat at the table. The remembrances they have or perhaps checking their cell phone for a picture of someone with that smile that they loved. It's hard. The inexplicable loss is sometimes just too hard to bear.

Survivors, whether they've been wounded themselves or wounded in their hearts from the loss of a family member. They carry deep emotional scars and sometimes physical wounds that can follow them for the rest of their lives. It's a real deep trauma that's inflicted on families and communities.

Whether it's from day to day, random shootings on the street, or gun violence, or the mass casualty events that have become so frequent in this country. My fear is that Americans are becoming desensitized to the shock and horror. Can that be the case here in this country? I feel it's what's happening, and we have to fight that as well.

Already this year, we're not even close to being done. We still have Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas. We have other events to follow. There's still 83 days left of this year, and we've had 400 mass shootings already.

Last spring, I went to a remembrance family event in Buffalo. You know what happened? It's a beautiful sunny day. Twelve beautiful people shopping at a grocery store ten minutes from my home, the top supermarket, were slaughtered for leaving their homes, going to a grocery store.

The dad of a three year old buying a birthday cake for his birthday, and the candles, Grandmothers, killed because of the color of their skin. Those are my words, but also the words of the white supremacist who on his 18th birthday, in the southern part of New York went out and purchased a weapon, went over the border in Pennsylvania, was able to get enhancements to make it a real weapon of mass destruction.

He was looking for the community that was closest to him, but had the largest population of people of color. He wrote that. Chilling.

Buffalo was three hours. The Bronx would have been three hours and fifteen minutes. He chose to go to Buffalo, because it was a little bit of a shorter drive for him to go. When I went to that remembrance, I went back into the aisles of the grocery store.

Otherwise a food desert. You know, there was talk about tearing it down. We couldn't tear it down. How are people going to eat? There weren't a lot of grocery stores in this part of our city. I walked down one of the aisles and there was a family sobbing, standing at the place their loved one was gunned down.

And of course, I went over and gave them a hug. Beautiful family.

And one woman said, "I miss my mom. I want my mom here." And a little girl said, "I want my grandma." And everybody's crying. There's too many tears being shed, my friends.

Just waking up with that pain every single day is an act of endurance and strength. And those who can take that pain and that anger and use it as a fuel to make the world safer and to fight gun violence, requires a force of will. And it's also selfless acts of love.

And I saw that same selflessness and courage when Congresswoman Gabby Giffords stepped down on the floor of the House of Representatives, literally months after she had been shot. I was a new member of Congress, Gabby. Everybody surrounded you, gave you a group hug, like the most popular kid in class. Everybody loved you, still loves you, and I was there to witness it with my own eyes.

The bullet that struck Gabby that day in Tucson may have injured her body, but my God, it gave her strength. Not just to continue her dedication and love to the people of Arizona, but also, she transported that to a love of our country and a desire to save lives wherever she could. She used that travesty and turned it into triumph. Gabby Giffords.

So, she has fought every day - every single day - to make sure that little kids can go to school safely and focus on learning instead of having to be involved in active shooter drills. And to guarantee that every family can live free from violence and focus on learning and living and thriving. That's what the Constitution guarantees us, doesn't it? Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, rather than worrying about whether your loved ones are going to make it home at the end of a school day or a day at the office.

Gabby, know that - even from a distance - your name is synonymous with strength, courage and a desire to change. And we don't have to accept as a given that there'll be another 400 days with mass shootings, because we can stop that. You never quit and we're never going to quit. We're not going to give up and we're going to continue this march in your name.

And three years ago, working with our leaders in the Legislature, we enacted the strongest laws in the nation on the creative but deadly ghost guns - something the Supreme Court is taking up as we speak. That same year - I was a brand new governor and the numbers of shootings were going up, murders were up - chaos had descended into a society, it seemed, as an aftermath of the pandemic. I said, "We can do better, but we're not alone." Why is New York trying to take on the gunfight alone? These guns are not made in our state, they're coming up the Iron Pipeline. They're coming from the gun shows in Pennsylvania where people are loading weapons into their trunks and driving up Route 81. Syracuse one way, heading over to the Bronx and the City in the other - just all connecting.

So I said, "Let's have an interstate gun task force," and we called up the governors of nine states around us - it's now twelve - who are all working with us and federal authorities to interdict the guns before they land on our streets.

And you all know what happened when the Supreme Court overturned the laws against concealed carry weapons, stripping away the power of the governor of this state to make her citizens safe. When the Supreme Court did that, we didn't throw up our hands and surrender. We fought back. We doubled down. We came up with legislation. And we have a prohibition on concealed carry weapons in sensitive places. I personally think every place is sensitive, don't you? Alright, well, we drew the lines, okay? We decided what was sensitive, and so far we are good. We now require comprehensive background checks, training and monitoring if anyone is seeking a concealed carry permit.

We also raised the minimum age of buying a handgun from 18-years-old to 21, because it makes no sense - yes - makes no sense to sell a weapon of war to someone who's not allowed to have a beer in a bar, right? Common sense.

We strengthened the requirements for semiautomatic weapons and storing weapons, and gun dealers in New York State can no longer get away with ignoring the record keeping requirements. Comprehensive exhaustive sale records are mandated now. But here's one that is one of my favorites: We strengthened our red flag laws. We did something that - in my heart, I knew if every other state would do, or if we had a national red flag law - that we would save tens of thousands of lives in this country. I know it because we've seen that happen here in the State of New York.

This is what you do when someone sends that signal in what they've said, what they've done, how they've acted - people who are dangerous to themselves or to others should not have access to weapons. It's that simple. It's that simple. And before we acted, only members of law enforcement could request extreme risk orders of protection. That's great, but now we've empowered that people actually see individuals more up close and personal: Members of their own family, educators, doctors, mental health providers - they now have the power to say, "I'm worried. Something should happen before a tragedy occurs." And this is one of the most impactful changes we've made and it's working.

The use of red flag laws in the state of New York have gone up 1,300 percent since we made that change. We're leading the nation in use - there's counties like Suffolk County, they're off the charts - they're doing the right thing. And I thank our advocates there who are working so hard on this.

We've also invested $350 million in gun violence protection programs. Including something that's so important to me, the youth employment and the violence disruption programs. We have to give these kids an alternative. Don't leave them to the streets. The gang should not be where the sense of belonging that they're not getting at home. This is where we stop it before it starts, I believe that. I believe that.

And now, after what we've done. New York State proudly can boast that it has the third lowest gun mortality rate in the entire nation. Since I've taken office, shootings are down 50%. In three years, murders are approaching an historic low we have not seen since the 1960s. And that's our New York State data that I trust, it didn't happen by accident. As I said, it's intentional strategies. But as those who know me well, there's no such thing as resting on your laurels. We never rest. We continue.

Today, joined by leaders who understood that we can continue this march to save lives. I'm signing six bills to further strengthen New York's gun laws.

And I want to thank our bill sponsors who are here today. Senate Deputy Majority Leader Mike Gianaris, Senator Shelley Mayer, Assemblymember Chuck Lavine, who all sponsored our latest legislation dealing with extreme risk protection orders. They've been great champions.

Senator Brad Hoylman-Segal, Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon, for taking on the issue of the Pistol Converter Regulation.

And all the sponsors who couldn't join us here today. Now I'll just give you a quick little detail because I know you want to hear from Gabby Giffords. Our new bills will strengthen our red flag laws by streamlining the process for police to request them, and require that they be reported to a statewide database. Think of the logic behind that.

There's now a central repository so others who may encounter an individual and say, "Oh, I was worried, there's already something out there - maybe it's time to act now." This is going to help.

We're also going to require credit and debit card companies to track purchases at gun dealerships, and make it in turn for us to monitor the sale of guns and ammunition. So we know if someone's stockpiling ammo, not a good sign. There's a lot of deer in our state, but I kind of know some signs that you're not deer hunting this fall, right? So let's see if there's someone who's stockpiling again, sending up a red flag - something's not right over here - and someone pays attention. That's all we're asking to do here.

We're also going to require dealers to display the phone number for the National Suicide Hotline, because so many people go get a gun and take their own lives - as well as additional warnings about dangers of guns at home. How many stories have you read about a child who gets hands on a gun that was loaded and kills a sibling, hurts themselves - maybe kills a parent?

So, there's a lot we can do. It's also about gun storage, a public awareness campaign and many other things as well. But think about this - one that I think is so important. Requiring gun makers to make sure that their products are not easily converted to automatic weapons. The use of pistol converters.

Now, this is the great state of New York. We're doing this to help protect New Yorkers, and I believe these will help. They'll make us safer, without a doubt. But isn't it a shame that the rest of the nation can't be just as safe as we are here in the state of New York? Let's continue to call that out. Gun violence is a national crisis.

We desperately need federal action on this issue. And that's why I'm calling for a new National Assault Weapons Ban, because the last one never should have expired. And background checks should be universal. We talked about this after the slaughter of children at Sandy Hook and they couldn't get it done. What more will it take? Too many have died since then.

This is how we honor those who've died as a result of gun violence. Those who still carry the wounds, physical and emotional. The families and communities that are left behind picking up the pieces. This is how we continue the march forward. To build a society that once and for all is free from gun violence.

People who are here didn't ask to be part of this. They've all been touched. Coming here, I know it reopens the scars every time you come to events. You wear the t-shirt, you speak out. And I honor you for that. It is so hard.

But it's our job to continue to cherish lives, the ones we're going to save - Carry on this fight. Today, tomorrow and the years to come. And I know all of you are going to stand with me until we banish, banish the specter, the pain and suffering that comes from violence.

Someone who's had to experience this firsthand, someone as I've mentioned is someone who does not realize the impact she has had on all of us - and tens of thousands of people you'll never know.

I want to invite this woman up, Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who turned a tragedy into purpose. Founding an extraordinary organization that I can tell you has saved lives. Ladies and gentlemen, let's give a warm New York welcome to Congresswoman Gabby Giffords.

Contact the Governor's Press Office