Take note, Congress: if notoriously fractured Albany can make a deal, it’s your turn. New York state legislators reached a deal with Gov. Andrew Cuomo on a number of gun restrictions, including expanding the state’s assault weapons ban and enacting laws to keep guns away from the mentally ill. The deal was passed by the Legislature a month after the school massacre in Newtown, Conn. It passed the state Senate, which is controlled by a coalition of Republicans and a handful of Democrats, at 11 p.m. Monday, with support mainly from New York City and Long Island legislators. Not one Republican from the rural upstate caucus voted for it.
The expanded ban on assault weapons would broaden the definition of such weapons, banning semiautomatic pistols and rifles with detachable magazines and one military-style feature, as well as semiautomatic shotguns with one military-style feature. New Yorkers who already own such guns could keep them but would be required to register them with the state.