Audio, Video, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Delivers Remarks at First Meeting of the Interstate Task Force on Illegal Guns

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul convened the first meeting of the Interstate Task Force on Illegal Guns and delivered remarks.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the Governor's remarks is available here.

PHOTOS of the event are available on the Governor's Flickr page.

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

Governor Hochul: Thank you superintendent and good morning everyone. Superintendent, I want to thank you for leading this incredible team of dedicated public servants, our New York State Police. But also to put a spotlight today on the very specialized work they do here at the New York State Intelligence Center. And I've been here for briefings prior to the 20th anniversary of 9/11, my second week on the job as governor I understood that there were threats that need to be assessed. And I convened individuals here to make sure that I was aware of what was going on as well as working with our other partners. And so thank you for all you do.

I'll be introducing our Lieutenant Governor in a couple of minutes, but I want to thank him for joining us here today. As we attack something that is painful to talk about, because we are still reeling as a state. Our hearts are broken by the knowledge that this time last week, we had two more officers on the beat. Two young men in their twenties, two young men who had their entire lives ahead of them and their family, and one with a new spouse. And that was all shattered with a gun that was traced back to Baltimore, originating back in 2017.

And that is what we're talking about here today. So we can get to a point where we don't grieve, we also celebrate our success and know that we have turned the corner on fighting gun violence. And this happens with incredible partners. We'll be talking about what's going on in the next room, before I head in there and welcome them. But, gun violence is a national crisis. 90 of the top 100 cities in America are seeing an escalation in gun violence cases. And we have to make sure that we're working together. And this is not a New York phenomenon.

This is a national phenomenon. And we now have to pull together all the tools in a concerted way, not just pulling what we have available to us here in the state of New York, which is exceptional, but also saying, where are these guns coming from? They're not originating here in the state of New York. We've identified and traced states where they are originating and why their murder rate is higher because the number of guns coming into our state is higher.

The numbers bear this out. I've studied the data. And there's a phenomenon going on here that we're going to study and understand why this is the case that as we enter 2022, we are seeing a dramatic increase in the number of guns finding their ways through our borders and into the hands of criminals. And we are seeing a concentration in places like the Bronx, Upper Manhattan, but also in other cities. I was just in Syracuse yesterday and Rochester a short time before that. This is a phenomenon that is occurring in cities all over America, but we're particularly focused on what's going on here in New York.

And yes, the murders are up across the nation. Just not a great source of comfort, but New York State is faring better than others, safer than the rest of the country, but it's a similar trend. The numbers are going upwards, and we're also concerned about the victims of these crimes and particular when members of our law enforcement are gunned down for doing nothing more than showing up in the cause of keeping the peace, which is what occurred just a short time ago in New York City. People and individuals thinking they're going to protect a woman from a threat and they end up becoming victims.

And that is what we're fighting against, but also the realization that in Black and Brown communities, Black Americans are eight times more likely to be murder victims as their white counterparts. So we have a dynamics going on here to say we are heading this call to action. We are compelled to do everything we possibly can. And that is why in my State of the State address, which occurred on January 5th, even before this most recent spate of violence, I said, we need to come together with not just our allies in New York State, our partners everywhere from ATF, we have our ATF special agent in charge for the entire state is with us today, John DeVito, we welcome their partnership. Our federal partners. Bringing together our U.S. attorney's offices, the FBI here in the state of New York, NYPD of course has been embedded with us for a considerable amount of time but we're deepening those relationships now. But what about partners in the other states where the guns are originating?

That is what has not been tackled successfully in my judgment, in the past. And that's why I announced in my State of State, this formation of interstate taskforce on gun violence, illegal guns. And we will bring all these individuals together as well as people from nine states in the Northeast. This has not happened before. We have in the next room, 50 individuals in person and on zoom, who are joining together in the common pursuit of stopping the guns from flowing into New York, ending up in the hands of criminals and end up taking the lives of people we love and cherish.

So we're pulling together this quickly and what are they going to do? And I ask a lot of tough questions. I said, how are we going to judge success? I had a call this morning, how will we know that this is successful? Well, first of all, let's find out what is happening. Why are more guns happening? Do people have more money? Is there something more going on in those states? Are people looking to have the flow of guns come to New York to make a higher profit? Is this related to gang activities? Is it related to more domestic cases where people happen to have a gun and they use them, whereas if they didn't have the gun and babel, they would not, it might be another altercation, but it wouldn't result in death?

So these are the questions we're asking right now, but what we have to focus on is real time gathering of intelligence. Not wait a couple of days. Not wait until a lab is finished analyzing. Real time, immediate response. And that is what we hope to attain by deepening the relationships, coming together toward this common purpose. And also operational coordination when it comes to gun interdiction.

And we have very porous borders here in the state of New York. You think about guns that can easily flow in from the state of Pennsylvania. They have different gun laws, and we're proud of the gun laws we have here in the state of New York. And that's why we know that our problem is being caused from out of state guns. So when we have the opportunity to have interdiction efforts along our border with Pennsylvania, identifying the gun shows where people are purchasing guns, loading up a trunk and coming up by 81 or route 90 in toward Western New York. And then the guns are ending up in our cities in particular. And that's the level of trafficking that we want to zero in on.

Where are they coming from? Where are they going and how we stop them? And ultimately by combining our resources, we're going to be able to leverage our individual strengths and our resources. So I want to thank all of them for stepping up and answering this call. And I thank the governors of those states as well for participating. And in addition to this, we have a lot of work to do. You'll be hearing very shortly from the Mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, who from day one - even before day one, we have been working closely together to address this situation, talking about violence in the subways, trying to restore people's confidence about coming back to their jobs.

And we have a lot of work to do on that front, but it only happens when you have willing partners who bring all their resources and human capital together. Smart people who gather in a place like today and get the ball rolling. My executive budget also shows tremendous support for law enforcement here in the state of New York. Not just with the formation of this task force, but also we've added more money to increase our gun crime tracing. We have more money going out there to hire more social media analysts. This way we can find out early on what trends are out there. What are people talking about? What's the chatter? And perhaps identify individuals who are on the cusp of purchasing guns or trafficking in guns, or even committing crimes. So that's going to be very helpful.

Also more equipment, software, special onboarding computer and cybercrimes unit. Investing 13 more million into our crime analysis center network. So, we're hitting this on all fronts, but making sure that at the end of the day when we look at ourselves and say, did we do everything we could? That answer has to be yes. And that is another reason why I just recently extended an executive order that was put in place last summer to ensure that we are acknowledging the fact that we are still in a crisis, the executive order declare a gun violence state of emergency.

That allows me to have flexibility for convening opportunities like this, to let people know how deadly serious this is. And also, as I mentioned, some of the resources in our state budget, we are literally tripling. Tripling the amount of money going toward our crime gun tracing efforts here with the State Police.

But also, that's one side of the equation, what's happening in these communities. And I've tripled the amount of money going into gun violence disruption programs, and giving people opportunities to find a better path, not just with summer jobs, which we're going to do, but also throughout the year and let young people know who are on that cusp of saying, "Which path am I going to take?" That they have the right influences guiding them to ensure that they do take the right steps, continue their education, and do not end up in the streets or else worse, in a morgue themselves. That's what our focus is on right now.

In October, I signed a bill that closed loop holes in gun possession of registration. And also, this is not the prime driver of illegal guns in our state, but we also made sure that we're getting ahead of the whole phenomenon of ghost guns. And that's why I took the step of banning ghost guns here in the State of New York. And also, not just a law enforcement issue, but also a justice issue, and an issue trying to get under the health effects that this has on communities and societies that are under siege right now, it has a dramatic effect on people's sense of security. And that to me is a painful aspect where people are feeling nervous and anxious, and in light of what we've come through with this pandemic, this is almost too much for people to bear.

And that's why we are, as of today, I'm announcing the head of my new Office of Gun Violence Prevention. It is embedded in the Department Of Health, and this is going to make sure that we're looking at all of the collateral impacts of gun violence, but also perhaps the drivers of this, what leads people to this and what is going on in their emotional and psychological worlds of what could be driving people to these decisions. So I've announcing today that Calliana Thomas is the new Executive Director. We'll be staffing her up. She comes with a tremendous experience in dealing with justice in New York City. So I want to welcome Calliana Thomas to our team as well.

And again, having partners makes all the difference in the world. And I have an individual who's been at my side since I became governor, exactly six months ago. And that is our Lieutenant Governor, Brian Benjamin. And he has insights that others do not have and I need to rely on him and his knowledge of the community particularly Harlem, where he's from, where we're seeing these cases. And I want to thank him for being there at the side of the families and everyone who gathered in person, the night these horrific attacks on our law enforcement, our police officers, Mora and Rivera occurred. So thank you for being there.

We were in communication nonstop last Friday night, you were there with the Mayor of New York. And just, thank you for your calm presence, Lieutenant Governor, and the guidance you continue to give me as well as the people of the State of New York. And then after that, he'll be introducing by zoom, the mayor of New York City, Eric Adams. So, thank you for joining us today.

I'm very excited to launch this initiative. First time it's occurred. And I'm being told by our federal partners that they'd like to replicate this in other states and have this concentrated, intentional effort where there's now going to be daily communication, in places where there had not been among other states, as well as the continued work we do with the NYPD and the State Police embedding them together.

So this is a new day dawning. We are coming at this issue with all the resources we can deploy. Again, the human capital, the relationships, the partnerships, other states engaged to stop the scourge of illegal guns coming into our State and being in the hands of individuals who are using them to do harm and worse, to cause the death of other individuals, particularly our law enforcement officers. So Lieutenant Governor, Brian Benjamin.