ICYMI: Governor Hochul's Op Ed in The USA Today Network: How Many More Dead Children Will it Take to Ban the AR 15

ICYMI: Governor Hochul's Op-Ed in The USA Today Network: How Many More Dead Children Will it Take to Ban the AR-15?

Today, the USA Today Network published an op-ed by Governor Kathy Hochul highlighting the need to craft a comprehensive, national policy to reduce gun violence. Text of the op-ed is available below and can be viewed online here.

In America today, our babies are more likely to be shot than to die in a car accident. They're more likely to be murdered with a gun than to die from disease. They're more likely to be massacred by a weapon of war than to die from starvation.

Our nation faces daily carnage caused by AR-15s and other military grade firearms. The rate at which children are killed by guns doubled from 2013 to 2021, and yet our national policy is frozen in place while the Supreme Court debates 18th century muskets.

This is a shocking fact in the context of human history. We gasp in horror at images of child soldiers with machine guns overseas, and yet we repeatedly fail to take action when those same weapons are carried by children in our schools.

Guns like the AR-15 were outlawed nationwide until the Federal Assault Weapons Ban was allowed to expire 20 years ago by the Bush administration and Congressional Republicans. The AR-15 is now the common thread linking Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012 and a political rally in a Pennsylvania field in 2024.

It's the same type of weapon an 18-year-old white supremacist used to murder 10 people in a Tops supermarket in my hometown of Buffalo because of the color of their skin. And just days ago, an AR-15 enabled a 14-year-old - a child - to kill four of his classmates and teachers at Apalachee High School in Georgia.

We must demand action in Washington

Are our minds now so desensitized and our hearts so hardened that we no longer scream out in rage and demand action in Washington?

A dozen years ago there was hope when the shock of Sandy Hook almost led Republicans in Congress to consider background checks. Opposition from the NRA stopped it in its tracks.

Gun culture in this country remains strong. Again and again, we hear the platitudes. "Guns don't kill people, people kill people."

It is true that if everybody was perfectly moral, sane, and reasonable, these attacks wouldn't happen. But we don't live in Shangri-La.

In some instances, the killers are motivated by hate, promulgated in the internet's darkest corners. In others, they are deeply mentally ill and alone at the margins of society.

One thing is consistent: In every case they have access to a machine purpose built for mass murder.

We cannot settle for the status quo. We urgently need stronger national gun laws. Washington should look to the actions New York is already taking at the state level to craft a comprehensive, national policy to reduce gun violence.

In the aftermath of the Supreme Court overturning our concealed carry laws in 2022, I signed bills prohibiting concealed carry near sensitive locations and requiring comprehensive background checks, training, and monitoring of those seeking concealed carry permits.

I raised the minimum purchase age from 18 to 21, strengthened permitting requirements for semiautomatic rifles, and enhanced safe storage requirements. I mandated gun dealers or sellers keep exhaustive sales records.

One of the most impactful actions we took was the toughening of our red flag laws so that doctors and mental health providers-in addition to family members and educators-can file applications for extreme risk protection orders. This enables police and courts to remove guns from people who may be a danger to themselves or others.

These measures have made a difference. With these changes, the use of red flag laws is up 1,341% since I took office, and CDC data shows New York has the fifth-lowest firearm mortality rate nationally. Every state-not to mention the Federal government-should enact similar measures.

Congress must also enact a new Federal Assault Weapons Ban.

Yet this alone will not be enough to stop the killing. Gun advocates have a point about this. We also must take on the factors that lead people to seek out weapons and commit mass murder.

We need major national investment in mental health, regulation of social media's addictive algorithms, and the restoration of the American dream.

New York can be a model for proactive gun control

Once again, New York can be a model for action.

We're building school-based mental health clinics and deploying over $1 billion to overhaul our mental health system. In June, I also enacted a suite of nation-leading bills restricting addictive social media algorithms for minors (which can be incredibly damaging to teens' mental health).

We're also investing billions in high tech manufacturing in long-overlooked regions of our State. The goal is to create an economy where the American dream is attainable, so people do not turn to toxic racism, antisemitism or bigotry.

We need a similarly comprehensive approach at the national level, including a comprehensive mental health policy, regulations on addictive social media algorithms, and a sustained focus on building an opportunity economy.

But as important as these strategies are, the most effective way we can protect our children is to completely ban the AR-15 and similar weapons.

If we don't take action to stop these instruments of death, then our Nation's promise to secure the inalienable rights of "life," liberty, and the pursuit of happiness will be meaningless.

America, can't we at least protect our most vulnerable and keep them alive? Is that too much to ask?

Kathy Hochul is governor of New York.

Contact the Governor's Press Office