BUFFALO, N.Y. – In a Sunday interview on CNN’s State of the Union, New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) went on the offensive in response to the deadly mass shooting in Buffalo over the weekend, calling for national laws regarding both gun control and social media content.
“We have some of the toughest laws in America on the books here, but the guns are coming in from other states or the enhanced magazine, which is exactly what happened here, the high-capacity magazine that led to the slaughter of people in my hometown,” Hochul told CNN.
Yet the governor’s comments come in the face of increasing scrutiny over New York State’s existing Red Flag law — a law that was not enforced in the case of Payton Gendron, the 18-year-old mass shooter accused of killing ten people at about 2:30 p.m. Saturday at the Tops Friendly Markets in Buffalo.
Fox News reported that Gendron planned his attack in detail.
News surfaced that the shooter had posted an online manifesto. Reportedly 180 pages in length, the document allegedly shows that this violent young man planned his attack in great detail over many months — after he’d already been under investigation for threatening to kill himself and others.
That’s right.
Gendron had been involved last year in an incident during his senior year at Susquehanna Valley High School in Conklin, NY.
According to CBS New York, Gendron said at that time that he wanted to “commit a murder-suicide” in response to a question on what he wanted to do after graduating.
“That immediately triggered the state police coming there, talking this young person, taking him for a mental health evaluation, which did occur, and then they released him because he said he was only kidding.” Hochul said, according to CBS New York.
So this extremely troubled young man had publicly threatened to kill himself and others in a state with Red Flag gun confiscation laws on the books…and then went on to post hundreds of comments over many months in his online manifesto about his detailed plan to kill as many people as he could?
The State of New York, the FBI, and the local police did nothing to stop him?
What’s The Point Of Red Flag Laws, Then?
Gendron allegedly purchased the Bushmaster XM-15 that he used in the shooting from Vintage Firearms in Endicott, NY, two months ago, according to ABC 7 Eyewitness News.
If the gun laws already on the books in New York had been followed, Gendron should have been red-flagged and never been allowed to purchase it in the first place.
Business Insider reported that New York authorities did not impose the state’s red-flag law on the suspect. They point out that a Red Flag law should have stopped him from purchasing the semi-automatic rifle he allegedly used in the mass shooting.
The law, which was enacted in 2019, is meant to keep guns away from people at a high risk of using them to hurt others or themselves,” Business Insider reported. “It allows police officers, district attorneys, family or household members, and school administrators to request quick court intervention if they believe someone poses a gun threat.
Gendron passed a government instant background check the day the purchase was made, making the sale completely legal, according to ABC 7 Eyewitness News.
Hochul said she was “investigating” why the red flag law was ignored in the case of Gendron.
OUR TAKE
Why does a far-leftist like Gov. Hochul demand more gun control laws nationally when her state can’t or won’t enforce the gun control laws they have on the books now?
Hunger for power? Incompetence? Both?
Whatever it is, it’s clear that being a freedom-hating leftist like Hochul means never having to say you’re sorry or admit that your policies aren’t working.
The State of New York has already passed the outrageous Red Flag Laws — laws which are ripe for abuse and are fundamentally unconstitutional.
But once they’ve passed them, they are either so incompetent or so evil that they just sit back and do nothing while this guy posts online for MONTHS about his plans?
They’ve largely disarmed the citizens of New York and then do a terrible job protecting them — even once they’ve usurped the citizens rights to protect themselves.
Shameful.
