After three mass shootings in under 30 days, Governor Andrew Cuomo now has his sights set on tightening gun laws in New York State.
On Thursday following the deadly shooting at a California bar that left 12 dead, Cuomo says he plans to take additional steps “to make our laws even stronger.”
But as families across the country mourn the loss of loved ones to gun violence, not everyone agrees more laws are the answer.
Ken Mathison is the Monroe County Chair of the Shooters Committee on Political Education, or SCOPE, and believes tighter laws aren’t the solution.
“If you have somebody that’s unstable you need to get them help,” explained Mathison. “You don’t need to just say ‘we’re gonna take the guns away’ so they can’t do any harm. They will find a way.”
“You can’t legislate against evil or crazy,” added Mathison.
One law aiming to stop gun violence are red flag laws, which prevent people deemed a danger to themselves or others from owning a gun.
A red flag law that has been proposed for New York would give legal standing to teachers, school administrators and parents to ask a judge to evaluate children they believe are a threat to themselves or others.
A judge can then order all firearms to be confiscated in a child’s home, no matter whose guns they are which Mathison says is a violation of our second amendment.
As for red flag laws as a whole, Mathison says they “can be effective if they’re done properly.”
“The problem is most red flag laws focus on the gun and not on the person, or the problem, or fixing the problem,” said Mathison.
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