Civic Issues: NY first state to pass gun laws post-Sandy Hook massacre

For my civic issues blog I decided to focus on politics, seeing as political science is my major and I also really enjoy it! With the recent school shooting in Connecticut, there has been a lot in talks of gun control. We all know that the NRA is against anything banning guns, and then there are people who will do whatever it takes. Just this week Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York signed the first bill regarding guns. Clearly this is a huge step for any government to take. I thought this story was interesting. What exactly is included in the bill is as follows:

“The laws fortify New York’s existing assault weapons ban, limit the number of bullets allowed in magazines and strengthen rules that govern the mentally ill, which includes a requirement to report potentially harmful behavior.”

To me this does not seem like too radical of a bill to be put into place. And I also find it surprising that Cuomo was able to get support from New York’s GOP run senate. This is clearly a very relevant topic, and the first of many states laws to be created after this horrible massacre. It is a great example of the contrasting views of the people across the nation. You’ve got your gun toting, old men who think that any law banning any sort of gun is unconstitutional, and then you’ve also got your younger generation, Democrats/liberals, who are anti-gun and could care less about things like the NRA and are only concerned with the safety of people. This is a fight that we have not heard the last of. Just today, President Obama nominated Todd Jones as the new director of the ATF and laid down other plans (which I have not had a chance to look at yet). But obviously, this issue of gun control will not only be talked about on a state level, but also on a federal level. Anyways, everyone should read the article or look up info about New York’s new bill and those that are in the process of being. We will definitely be hearing a lot about guns for a while now following Sandy Hook and all other shootings that have ever happened in the past, to prevent them from happening again in the future.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/15/us/new-york-gun-bill/index.html