ALBANY — A day after an 18-year-old gunman slaughtered 19 children and two teachers at a Texas school, Gov. Hochul said she wants New York to raise the age to buy firearms in the state to 21 from 18.

“I don’t want 18-year-olds to have guns,” Hochul said Wednesday following a meeting of the Interstate Task Force on Illegal Guns at the New York State Intelligence Center in upstate East Greenbush. “At least not in the State of New York.”

The governor, who has already proposed several measures strengthening the state’s gun law in the wake of a mass shooting in Buffalo that left 10 dead earlier this month, said she sees no reason why 18-year-olds should have access to the AR-15 assault-style rifles used in both tragedies.

“As we’ve just seen from these two horrific crimes that we can’t get out of our minds, the common denominator, there are three: the weapon was an AR15, the perpetrator was a male and the perpetrator was 18,” she said.

On Tuesday, authorities say, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos killed 19 schoolchildren and two teachers at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school.

On May 14, 10 Black shoppers were shot to death in what police have described as a racist-fueled rampage by an 18-year-old upstate New York man at a Buffalo supermarket.

The governor, who became emotional at times while discussing the seemingly unending string of mass shootings in the United States, also ordered the state police to increase patrols and conduct daily check-ins at schools through the end of the school year.

“In light of yesterday, you get to the point where you feel like there are no words left,” Hochul said. “But those people deserve our words.

“Am I supposed to just leave all the flags at half-mast? They’re still at half-mast from Buffalo,” she added.

Hochul said New York already has the “toughest gun laws in the nation.” She called for a “nationwide response” to the current crisis.

Mike Murphy, a spokesman for Senate Democrats, said that lawmakers support restricting what types of guns those younger than 21 can buy in New York.

“This is something we have been discussing and we have always been supportive of this idea and would certainly be in favor of moving forward,” he said.

Hochul said that limiting the ability to purchase AR-15 or semiautomatic weapons is the “minimum” she would like lawmakers to do.

“How does an 18-year-old purchase an AR-15 in the State of New York?” she said. “That person is not old [enough] to buy a legal drink. I want to work with the Legislature to change that.”

A similar measure in California was recently struck down as unconstitutional by a federal judge.

New York lawmakers are already expected to take up a firearms-related package before the scheduled end of the legislative session after Hochul last week unveiled several executive orders and bills meant to strengthen the state’s gun laws and target domestic terrorism.

Hochul has called on the Democratic-led Legislature to pass a package of bills including a measure that would expand the state’s existing ban on certain assault weapons to include firearms known as “any other weapons” or “A.O.W.s” while another would require semi-automatic handguns made or sold in the state to include features that would mark ammunition with a microstamp after they are fired.

Another part of the package would require law enforcement to report any firearm they recover from a crime scene within 24 hours so it could be tested to determine if it had been used in other crimes.

The legislative session is slated to end on June 2.

Additionally, Hochul said Wednesday that she would call lawmakers back to Albany for a special legislative session over the summer if the Supreme Court overturns the state’s conceal carry law. A decision in the case is expected soon.



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