Andy, gather info on ammo Key pol rips delay on database
ALBANY — State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins wants to know what’s holding up a long-promised state ammunition database that was once a key component of Gov. Cuomo’s signature gun laws.
In the wake of a pair of mass shootings that killed more than 30 people in Texas and Ohio, the governor spent the week touting New York’s 2013 SAFE Act — and sidestepping questions about the delayed database.
Cuomo’s dodging, coinciding with his calls for Democratic presidential candidates to pledge their support for a four-point plan to tighten federal firearm regulations, led Stewart-Cousins to challenge the administration’s foot-dragging.
“My conference has continuously led the way on smart gun laws,” she told the Daily News. “We were glad to provide the model legislation and votes to pass the SAFE Act, which includes the ammunition database.
“We certainly think that this database should get done quickly, and with California figuring out the technology there should be no more reason for delay,” she added, pointing to a similar program recently instituted in the Golden State.
Cuomo, asked Wednesday about the holdup, said his signature gun control law is working “100%.”
“The SAFE Act is working 100%,” the governor told WAMC’s Alan Chartock when asked about a Times Union report about the unfulfilled database. “First of all, the ban of assault weapons in and of itself is a culture change and a system change.”
In 2013, following the Newtown, Conn., massacre that left 20 children and six adults dead, Cuomo enacted the SAFE Act, banning highcapacity magazines and assault weapons, ensuring all gun purchases are subject to background checks and toughening criminal penalties for people who use illegal guns. The law also called for a database to track ammunition purchases in real time.
Two years later, the Democratic governor and Senate Republicans announced they were delaying the implementation as technology for the project wasn’t yet available.
Beau Duffy, a spokesman the New York State Police said Thursday that getting the database up and running remains a “priority,” but noted the California program was built upon an already existing state system that gun shop owners accessed when selling firearms. In New York, gun dealers currently connect directly to the federal National Instant Criminal Background Check System, posing an infrastructure issue for integrating a state database for ammunition sales.
In the meantime, California has already stopped more than 100 people from illegally buying bullets.
Cuomo senior adviser Rich Azzopardi said Stewart-Cousins is welcome to craft legislation if she thinks of a way to speed up the process.
“State police has been working diligently to address any technological and logistical issues in order to create the infrastructure to run this database, and if the majority leader has a better way, we would review any bill she has, but we haven’t seen any,” he told The News.