ALBANY – State lawmakers expect to vote on a gun law package today that would strengthen New York’s assault weapons ban and toughen penalties for illegal gun use, legislative leaders said.
They cautioned rank-and-file lawmakers still need to review the package they have been negotiating with Gov. Cuomo.
And aides to Cuomo said there was no deal.
But both Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) and Senate co-leader Jeff Klein (D-Bronx) said they expect a vote today.
If there is, New York would beat the White House with the nation’s first gun control package in the wake of recent shooting rampages, including last month’s elementary school massacre that killed 20 students and six educators in Newtown, Conn.
“I think the message out there is so clear after Newtown to get us down this road as quickly as possible – to basically eradicate assault weapons from our streets in New York as quickly as possible,” Silver told reporters today.
“It is something the people of this state want and it is an important thing to do,” he added. “It is an emergency. The solution is: get those assault weapons off the streets.”
Silver said the deal is expected to reduce the bullet capacity for magazines to seven, from 10, and no longer exempt high-round clips manufactured before 1994.
“We are going to ban assault weapons,” he declared. “We are going to eliminate all of the loopholes that existed previously.”
The package will also include “a significant expansion of Kendra’s Law,” which requires mandatory treatment for potentially dangerous mentally-ill people, Silver said. The expansion “will provide for greater latitude with judges in terms of finding that people are dangerous and providing services to them.”
A Republican legislative source said the GOP was able to win tougher penalties for using guns on school grounds and improve Kendra’s Law by lengthening the amount of time potentially dangerous mentally ill people must undergo treatment.
Silver said the biggest remaining sticking point is extra state aid to help schools improve security.
He said the legislation will require owners of guns that become illegal under the stricter statute to register their weapons and that the new laws will prohibit transfer of those weapons.
He also said there will be stricter penalties “for crimes that are committed with guns” – as Senate Republicans have pushed for. “There’s mandatory minimums (sentences) in addition to the underlying crimes.”
Deputy Senate Republican Leader Tom Libous of Binghamton told Post columnist Fredric U. Dicker on Albany’s Talk 1300 AM radio today that a gun deal is “inevitable.”
The deal is expected to meet the toughest resistance among Republican senators, who are already getting warnings that they could pay politically for supporting gun control when they face re-election next year.
The 30-member GOP conference shares power with Klein’s five-member Independent Democratic Conference in the 63-seat Senate.
Mayor Bloomberg today called gun violence “a national problem that requires national leadership from Washington.”
Vice President Joe Biden is scheduled to present gun control proposals to President Obama tomorrow.