Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Signs Landmark Legislative Package to Strengthen Gun Laws and Protect New Yorkers

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul signed a landmark legislative package to immediately strengthen the state's gun laws, close critical loopholes exposed by shooters in Buffalo and Uvalde and protect New Yorkers from the scourge of gun violence that continues to infect our nation and endanger our communities. Governor Hochul signed the bills at the Northeast Bronx YMCA flanked by Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Speaker Carl Heastie, partners in the legislature, Attorney General Letitia James and victims and survivors of gun violence.

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

AUDIO of the event is available here.

PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.

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

Thank you, Sharon Greenberger for welcoming us once again. This is a phenomenal community place of gathering. A place where we hope that young people will have the influences they need to have better outcomes in their lives, a safer, more productive future. So, thank you and the whole team here at the Y.

I do want to acknowledge a number of individuals starting with my Lieutenant Governor, Antonio Delgado. Let's give him a round of applause.

Our Attorney General, Letitia James has joined us. You'll be hearing from her.

Two extraordinary leaders who've been my partners in Albany, and what they're able to accomplish literally in the final days of this session will transform the lives of New Yorkers and keep them alive, literally because of your efforts here. So, I want to give a special shout out to the Majority Leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins.

And the Bronx's own, Speaker Carl Heastie has joined us.

Senator Jamaal Bailey has joined us. His home turf here as well as Senator. I also want to recognize a contingent of individuals who traveled here early this morning, and this is deeply personal to them. These are my friends, my neighbors back in Buffalo. And I thank them for being incredible leaders at a time when their state needed it.

I'm referring to Senator Tim Kennedy, Senator Sean Ryan and Mayor Byron Brown. Thank you. Thank you for coming here today. Trenelle Gabay, the widow of Carey Gabay, I want to thank her for having the courage to harness your loss and your pain into a movement toward change. So, thank you for being on the front lines of this trend. Trenelle Gabay, the widow of Carey Gabay, is with us here today.

Also locally, we are in the Borough of the Bronx. Anybody here from the Bronx?

Borough President, Vanessa Gibson has joined us here.

Our District Attorney, Darcel Clark, along with the other district attorneys. Council Member, Kevin Riley has joined us. A little bit out of district, but still a powerhouse in her own right is Carolyn Maloney. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney has joined us.

I'm speaking to you today as the Governor of a state in mourning and the citizen of a nation in crisis. For over the past few weeks, we've been overcome by grief, by heartache, by anger. First of all, 10 of our brothers and sisters in my hometown were senselessly slaughtered while grocery shopping at a place called Tops Friendly Markets targeted by a white supremacists, literally because of the color of their skin. His words, not mine.

And yet, before these wounds even had a chance to heal, more news. More headlines about the slaughter of 19 babies in grade school, and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde. So we're grappling with these twin tragedies. We're constantly reminded of the scale of this across the nation. Just days ago, four people killed at a hospital in Tulsa. This weekend, three people killed, 11 wounded in Philadelphia, as gunmen fired into a crowd in a bustling entertainment district. It just keeps happening. Shots ring out, flags come down, and nothing ever changes. Except here, in New York.

In New York, we are taking bold, strong action. We're tightening the red flag laws to keep guns away from dangerous people. And we're raising the age of semi-automatic weapons so no 18 year old can walk in on their birthday and walk out with an AR-15. Those days are over. Those days are over. You hear that? Those days are over.

And we're microstamping bullets so law enforcement can have an easier time catching the criminals. And we're closing loopholes so the firearms that are being so cleverly manufactured or altered cannot evade our laws anymore. There's more to do. Thoughts and prayers won't fix this. But taking strong action will. And we'll do that in the name of the lives that have been lost. For the parents who will no longer see children stepping off a school bus. Spouses won't see their husband or wife coming back from the grocery store. Their lives have been altered forever. Because too many families have been destroyed, shattered, because of targeted gun violence, but also the random gun violence that occurs on our streets every single day. It just keeps happening, over and over and over.

And I have to ask, when did we become a nation that reveres the right to have the ability to possess a gun over the right of a child to stay alive? When did that happen? When will we, as a nation, say, "Enough of the bloodshed. No more, no more." Gun violence is a disease that is tearing our nation apart. And it is now the number one killer of children in America. How do we look at ourselves in the mirror every morning and not take action to protect these innocent children?

For 60 years, car accidents were the number one cause of death of children. That was not okay with us. So we took action. We pass laws, we made cars safer. We mandated seatbelts. Yeah, we took away the freedom to ride a car without a seatbelt. It was a very big deal when it happened. But people adapt. They got used to it. And guess what? We saved the lives of thousands of children. So it was clearly worth it.

And now, guns are the leading cause of their death. We know what we have to do. And this is a crisis, the scale of which requires a national response at the federal level and from each and every state. But here in New York, we don't wait. We lead. We've already have the strongest laws in the nation, but even that's not enough because when we see loopholes, we close them. When we see laws that need to be strengthened, we strengthen them. And if anyone tries to evade our laws, we stop them because this is a moment of reckoning for us as New Yorkers and as Americans.

History will judge us by how we respond, how we meet this moment, by whether we did everything in our power to keep these guns off the streets and out of the hands of criminals. I'm so proud to be here today. So proud to sign a package of transformative bills passed by my colleagues and the leaders in the legislature. I'm so grateful for them. And as a result, I'm going to mention these ten bills.

Number one no longer will an 18 year old, be able to purchase a semi-automatic weapon. We're requiring a permit to purchase that and raising the age of 21. Thank you, Senator Kevin Thomas and Member of the Assembly Chantel Jackson. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Number two, no longer will the threat of causing mass harm to others go on unpunished. Thank you, Senator Todd Kaminsky. Thank you. Assemblymember Monica Wallace.

No longer will large-scale ammunition magazines be legal in the State of New York. Thank you, Senator Brad Hoylman and thank Assemblymember, Majority Leader of the Assembly, Crystal Peoples-Stokes. Thank you.

No longer will we allow the sale of body vests and armor to those who don't need them for work. Thank you, Senator Brian Kavanagh. Thank you, Jonathan Jacobson.

And we'll now require data sharing and reporting by law enforcement to state and federal databases. Believe it or not, that wasn't happening before. Thank you, Senator Kavanagh. Thank you, Assemblymember Amy Paulin.

And as I mentioned, we're going to require a semi-automatic pistols to be microstamped to help police solve the crimes. Thank you, Senator Hoylman and thank you, Assemblymember Rosenthal.

And in the State of New York, we're now requiring social media networks to monitor and report hateful conduct on their platforms. Thank you, Senator Anna Kaplan and thank you Assemblymember Patricia Fahy.

We're going to continue focusing on this. We're going to establish a task force on social media and violent extremism to investigate the role of social media and promoting domestic terror. Our great leader, our Attorney General, will be championing this cause with every power her office can bring in at their disposal. Thank you Senator Jamaal Bailey and Assemblymember Demond Meeks.

And just as I did by executive action within days of the Buffalo shooting, we are by law making our red flag laws even stronger. Thank you, Senator Skoufis and Assemblymember Kevin Cahill.

And finally, just for all those manufacturers and criminals who think to get a step ahead of us, we are amending the definition of firearms to include what they call AOWs. Any other weapons. We've got it all covered, my friends. Thank you, Senator Sepulveda and thank you Assemblymember Kenny Burgos. Thank you.

So, I am so grateful, not just that we got this done, but the speed at which you got this done. No state has ever responded with a sense of urgency that has been on display over the last week and half. As legislators looked at our ideas and had their ideas, and we worked together nonstop around the clock and they literally got this done in record time.

And this package of bills is going to allow us to take direct action here in the state of New York, this is a multifaceted problem. It requires a multifaceted approach. So, we're continuing to our budget to invest in prevention, invest in prevention. That's how you beat this at the front end to take away the environment and the influences on young people, where they head off into this path.

Strengthening our laws to keep up with the criminals, get ahead of the criminals who break them, but also partnering at the community level in places like this. To figure out the root causes of why people do turn to crime. And while we're doing all of this, we have one primary objective and that is to keep New Yorkers safe.

It's as simple as that. Our job is to keep New Yorkers safe. As we continue to fight gun violence, we're going to keep the pressure on in Congress. Many of our members from the New York delegation have already done the right thing, but we need them to provide a national response. And maybe it takes a few of those whose hearts are hardened to the images on television of children cry because they saw their classmates gunned down right next to them. Maybe it takes them to travel and actually go to one of their funerals. Because if that won't soften your hard heart, I don't know what will, heaven help you.

Heaven help you if you could look at those images and not have a change of heart and say, I'm in a position of authority and power and influence, and I have a moral responsibility to do something let's get together and have thoughts and prayers for them that their hearts will finally turn.

These shootings are a wakeup call for this country and we need other states to follow their lead. So I'm going to be signing these bills in a matter of moments with fellow New Yorkers, the victims of the daily gun violence in places like the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Rochester, Syracuse, but also with the images of 10 of my neighbors from Buffalo whose faces, we will never forget. And we'll never forget them. We'll never forget the children and the brave teachers in Uvalde, Tulsa and anywhere else.

If no one else will lead, this is New York. That's what we do best. We do lead and they will not have died in vain. We will not grow complacent. We will not grow numb, will not tolerate inaction and be content any longer.

I'm a person of faith. My faith tells me that after I bow my head, we get to work. Today is a start. It's a start and it's not the end. I will not rest until everything we can do in our power has been done to keep our kids, our families, our citizens safe. That is my commitment to you as we go forward from here, let's sign some bills after you hear from great leaders.

Thank you everyone. Thank you. Thank you my friends