Hundreds of suspected gun traffickers have been arrested and thousands of illegal firearms have been seized, including nearly 200 AR-15-style rifles, since a new round of federal gun control measures was passed last summer, it said Monday. New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.
The Democrat, who first introduced the legislation 14 years ago after Brooklyn high school student Nyasia Pryear-Yard was killed by a stray bullet from an illegal firearm, said the bill gave law enforcement ordered the tools they needed to put arms dealers behind bars.
“At that time, gun trafficking wasn’t even a federal crime,” he said. “Law enforcement officials had to rely on a patchwork of weak and easily exploitable local statutes to prosecute violators, and this… allowed traffickers to operate even in broad daylight in our parks, near schools or outside our homes without fear of serious consequences.”
But the bipartisan Safer Communities Act, signed by President Biden in June 2022, changed that, Gillibrand said during a news conference outside NYPD headquarters, announcing a report on the legislation’s results so far. the moment.
Since its passage, authorities have charged more than 200 people in 20 states with gun trafficking and seized more than 1,300 firearms, including 190 AR-15s (the weapon of choice for mass shooters) and 151 ghost guns, he said. .
Senator Gillibrand said Monday that new federal gun legislation has allowed authorities to prosecute hundreds of gun traffickers. Matthew McDermott The new law has also allowed authorities to confiscate more than 1,300 guns, he added. Dennis Clark
Of those illicit firearms, 120 were in New York, the senator added. And there were nine defendants from the Empire State, including eight from New York City.
The law toughened background checks on younger gun buyers, closed loopholes for abusive partners, provided millions for mental health services and gave states incentives to pass red flag laws, among other initiatives.
At the time, Biden praised the legislation as something that will “save lives.”
Of the $750 million the bill provided for mental health services, nearly $100 million went to New York, Gillibrand said.
The funds will pay for about 14,000 new mental health professionals in schools across the country, including about 400 in New York, he said.
The law, signed by President Biden in June 2022, tightened loopholes, improved background checks and provided money for mental health, among other things. REUTERS
“You talk to any teacher or any parent… COVID did not go well for our children,” the senator said. “Young people’s mental health is not strong, they need support in our schools…I think getting more mental health services in our elementary and secondary schools will make our communities safer.”
During the press conference, which was also attended by four of the Big Apple’s five district attorneys, Gillibrand pointed to specific cases in which authorities arrested dealers who had been moving guns directly related to shootings in the metropolitan area.
Gillibrand first proposed the law in 2009 after meeting with the family of Nyasia Pryear-Yard, a Brooklyn high school student shot to death in 2009. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
In one case, cops caught four members of a trafficking ring transporting firearms to New York from Virginia along the so-called “Iron Pipeline,” which brings guns to the Northeast from less restrictive southern states.
One of the guns, which a suspect unknowingly sold to an undercover NYPD officer in June 2022, was linked to a shooting that occurred a year earlier in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Gillibrand said.
Another was used in a 2021 shooting in Canarsie, he added.
The accomplices sold the undercover cop at least 50 firearms before being arrested in January, making them some of the first defendants prosecuted under the new law, the senator said.
He also cited another raid in the Big Apple in which authorities seized 51 guns from a group of suspected dealers in Ohio, and an operation in New Jersey in which 28 ghost guns were seized from members of the Latin Kings street gang.
Before the law was passed, authorities did not have a federal statute under which they could prosecute gun traffickers, the senator said. X / @gillibrandny
“There are too many illegal guns present on our streets, and each one of them has the potential to endanger the members of our beautiful city,” said Jason Savino, an NYPD deputy chief who commands the law enforcement division. armed violence, at the conference. Press conference.
“The good news is that we are making progress,” he added. “While one shooting is one too many, so far this year in New York City, more than 300 fewer people have been shot compared to the previous year. Until all gun violence is eliminated, we will be relentless.”
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg also praised law enforcement’s accomplishments.
“We are very, very encouraged by the evolution of the numbers, but we know we have more work to do,” Bragg told reporters. “In Manhattan, our gun prosecutions have increased by 20%. “We are focusing, along with the NYPD, on those driving that violence.”
Of the suspects arrested for gun trafficking, nine are from New York. Eight of them are from the Big Apple. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
Gillibrand introduced the bill in 2009 after meeting with the family of Pryear-Yard, an honors student hit by a stray bullet while with friends at a dance party.
“Nyasia was about to graduate, she was on her way to U-Penn. “She was a bright light whose life was cut short due to gun violence in her community,” Gillibrand said.
“As a New Yorker, I’ve always known that if we can get illegal guns off the streets, lives will be saved,” the senator said, adding that she still wants to strengthen red flag laws, ban assault rifles and high-capacity rifles . journals.
“We want to continue focusing on this issue to do even more,” he continued. “I am working on a bipartisan basis right now to get more resources for law enforcement to conduct these investigations and prosecutions.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn