Make ’em wait longer to buy guns – Cuomo

GOV. CUOMO wants to increase the background check waiting period for the purchase of firearms in New York to a maximum of 10 days, the Daily News has learned.

“We need to do everything in our power to keep guns out of the hands of people too dangerous to have them,” a Cuomo administration official said Saturday.

Cuomo intends to make the issue a priority in the final weeks of the state budget talks with the Legislature, which are set to conclude by April 1, the administration official said.

“In light of the school shooting tragedy in Florida, the governor is seeking to make the SAFE Act, which is already the strongest gun safety law in the country, even stronger,” the Cuomo source said.

Under current law, anyone seeking to buy a pistol, shotgun or rifle in New York must undergo a background check. That check has three possible outcomes. The first allows the purchase to proceed immediately. The second is a denial of the sale. And the third is a call for a delay in the delivery of the gun.

That delay, under current law, can last only up to three days and then the gun can be delivered to the buyer. Cuomo will seek to push that maximum delay to 10 days. Doing so would give the FBI more opportunity to let the dealer know if the agency found something in the database that should kill the sale, supporters of the measure say.