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ALBANY — The gun scourge in New York goes far beyond the assault weapons that are grabbing headlines in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., massacre.
New state stats show that firearms were responsible for more than 58% of the murders statewide last year — but the biggest problem was handguns.
Of the 769 homicides reported in 2011, 393 were the result of handguns. There were 16 deaths by shotgun, five by rifle, and 33 by an unknown “firearm-type,” the state Division of Criminal Justice Services reports.
The rest of the killings were a mix of stabbings, beatings and other assaults.
A package of new proposals that Gov. Cuomo says he’ll push to give New York the nation’s toughest gun laws would come down on the military-style assault rifles like those used to kill 26 people in Newtown and by the crazed gunman who attacked firefighters responding to a blaze in Webster, N.Y., on Monday.
But Cuomo is also mulling measures that would rein in handguns including tougher gun registration rules and limits on the size of gun magazines to no more than seven bullets.
That would affect magazines for all firearms including handguns.
The new numbers “point to the fact that we must enact sensible restrictions on firearms,” said Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. “The Assembly has long been a champion for common sense reforms, and I hope the Senate will finally agree.”
Senate Republicans, who for years blocked gun control measures in Albany, for the first time have said they are open to expanding the assault weapons ban, though they have not offered specifics.
But Thomas King, president of the state Rifle & Pistol Association, said the latest numbers showing just five murders linked to rifles prove that assault weapon bans won’t stop a culture of violence.
“Banning assault weapons is not going to do anything to make the people of New York State safer,” King said. “It is not the weapon of choice except for maybe some cartels or drug gangs.”
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