Andrew Cuomo Announces Gun Violence Emergency in New York

By Tadi Abedje Published: July 7, 2021

Andrew Cuomo Announces Gun Violence Emergency in New York

FILE - In this Oct. 17, 2019, file photo, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo addresses a regional summit of governors in New York. In April 2020, Cuomo and Democratic legislative leaders agreed to amend a law that ruled out money bail and pretrial detention for most misdemeanor and nonviolent felony charges. Changes to the law will allow judges to set bail for more crimes, including misdemeanor bail jumping. Several criminal justice reform groups and state lawmakers raised concern at a Thursday, July 2, 2020, virtual news conference that the amended law, which goes into effect in July, will land more people behind bars amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)

By: Tadi Abedje

On Tuesday, lawmakers in New York passed a bill that will authorize lawsuits against gun manufacturers and dealers in how they promote and sell firearms, a bill which is explained in a CNN article published last month. With the New York governor signing the executive order, the legislation states that industry shareholders can be held responsible for selling firearms illegally.

Speaking of gun violence, shooting incidents in New York City had a 73% increase from May 2020 to May 2021, according to the NYPD website.

Cuomo unveiled his seven-part plan to prevent gun violence at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. According to CNN, it would treat gun violence as a public health emergency, target hot spots where gun violence is coming from, have positive engagements with at-risk youth, break the cycle of escalating violence, get illegal guns off the streets, keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people and rebuild the police-community relationship.

Also, it includes $138.7 million to be invested in creating intervention and prevention programs such as providing opportunities to young people so they can become productive citizens, as stated on his website.

“Just like we did with COVID, New York is going to lead the nation once again with a comprehensive approach to combating and preventing gun violence, and our first step is acknowledging the problem with a first-in-the-nation disaster emergency on gun violence,” Governor Cuomo said in a video on his YouTube channel at John Jay College. “When we see an injustice, we don’t look the other way; we stand up and fight it because that’s the New York way.”