Relates to establishing a voluntary waiver of the right to purchase firearms, rifles or shotguns

Showing the cosponsors who are on Agora, A to Z. The official record may list more.

• Democratic12
• Republican1

This bill has cosponsors from more than one party.

Shown in neutral colors by design; Agora is non-partisan.

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Brian Kavanagh says this is needed

The COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed widespread uncertainty. The world has been upended, and there is so much despair. Gun violence has increased, with frequent shootings recounted in New York and around the country. Reported suicides, which were already on the rise according to the Centers for Disease Control, and have accounted for two-thirds of gun deaths in the United States, have been increasing in the current environment. According to the Bloomberg American Health Initiative, "while firearms are used in less than 10 percent of all suicide attempts, they account for more than half of all suicide deaths." Recently in The Wall Street Journal, Frederick Vars and Ian Ayres advo- cated a legislative solution in "Suicide Accounts for Most Gun Deaths. A Libertarian Approach Could Help." Their plan is straightforward: to create a mechanism that allows people to voluntarily give up their right to purchase guns, but also to provide the individuals the ability to revoke that decision at a later time if they so choose. Washington and Virginia have recently enacted legislation, and nine other States, including Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Wisconsin, have introduced simi- lar bills in the legislatures. Vars and Ayres have conducted research and published numerous articles supporting this proposal, including a survey where 46 percent of 200 psychiatric patients in Alabama indicated that they would waive their rights given the opportunity. A system that allows individuals to voluntarily waive their rights to purchase firearms, rifles and shotguns can have an impact on all these sobering statistics. Essentially, it is allowing people to create a self-imposed pause, similar to a waiting period. This bill allows some- one who recognizes their own vulnerability to elect willingly, voluntar- ily and confidentially to waive their right, and then revoke the volun- tary.waiver after twenty-one days. This has the potential to save lives. We are in a pandemic that has seen millions of Americans suffering in a myriad of ways. New York State should enact this bill to allow people the opportunity to voluntarily take steps to protect themselves from themselves. Creating an option for people to ban themselves from purchasing firearms, rifles and shotguns has the potential to save them from hurting themselves and from hurting others.

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.