WTEN: Albany, New York News, Weather, Sports - 'Gun day' brings out those for, against gun control
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The fight against gun and gang violence in Albany and New York is getting some state help. It's coming in the form of a $500,000 grant from the SNUG program, that's "guns" spelled backwards.
The money would be used to provide intervention in hospitals, to hire people to talk to gang members who are shot, right in the emergency room to keep them from retaliating.
The money would also fund school programs to dissuade kids from joining gangs.
That program was just one of the things talked about at the State Capitol building Wednesday, where crowds of people were rallying for and against gun control laws.
Outside the building, some 200 school kids lay on the pavement in front, to remember the victims of gun violence.
"We're doing this to honor the victims from Virginia Tech, Binghamton and Columbine," one of the demonstrating students told NEWS10.
She added, "A lot of us come from Crown Heights, Brooklyn and we experience the violence every single day."
Gun owners heckled Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith (D) as he announced a program to curb illegal guns.
"More guns, less crime," one of the hecklers shouted.
All of this excitement was part of what might be called "gun day" at the State Capitol.
Inside, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Tice called this is common sense legislation..."
Inside, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Tice and law enforcement officials called on the State Senate to join the Assembly in mandating "microstamping" of semi-automatic handguns.
With microstamping, the gun's firing pin would imprint a unique ID number on each shell casing, which could link that weapon to a crime.
Tice called it "common sense legislation", while State Senator Eric Shneiderman (D - Manhattan) said going against microstamping was like "opposing fingerprinting, this is like opposing the use of DNA evidence."
Waiting outside the news conference was a lobbyist for gunmakers, Jake McGuigan of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
McGuigan said of microstamping, "Individuals and criminals are very resourceful; they will swap out the firing pin, they will file it down - and they say it cannot be done."
Gun owners gathered outside the Capitol, making their case.
"If you take everything out of somebody's hands and everything is in control of the government, there will be nothing but chaos," said Canandaigua gun owner Tom Shaw.
NEWS10 then ran into a lawmaker at the center of the storm, New York City Senator Marty Golden (R), a former member of the NYPD who used to favor micropstamping of guns, but now opposes it.
"Why would we want to jump ahead of something before we've completed a study to see whether it works or whether it doesn't work?" Golden posed.
These gun control measures were killed last year in the State Senate where the Republicans were in control. Despite the Democrats now taking over, there are still not enough votes to pass the bills.
Too many Democrats and Republicans have to worry about the gun lobby when they come up for reelection next year.
