Continuing a week of buttoning up the state’s gun laws, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill prohibiting state teachers from packing heat, and a second streamlining the state’s gun buyback program.
National conversation turned to the idea of arming educators in classrooms following a spate of horrific school shootings — notably the February 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 dead.
But activists decried the notion, warning that kicking off an arms race in schools was not the solution.
The legislation, which takes effect immediately, bans any school employee “who is not primarily employed as a school resource officer, law enforcement officer or security guard” from carrying a gun on school grounds.
“The answer to the gun violence epidemic plaguing this country has never been and never will be more guns, and today we’re expanding New York’s nation-leading gun safety laws to further protect our children,” Cuomo said in a statement Wednesday.
“These measures will help slow the proliferation of guns by keeping unneeded firearms out of school zones and helping to ensure unwanted or illegal guns don’t fall into dangerous hands.”
The other measure allows any and all “illegal, unsecured, abandoned or unwanted” guns to be turned in via “buyback” programs typically run by the State Police.
It creates uniform regulations to be applied statewide, and takes effect in 180 days.
The bills, along with other gun safety measures, were passed by lawmakers in January.