Assemblyman Phil Ramos (D- Central Islip) announced that the Assembly passed a number of tough gun bills which he sponsored. The legislation is aimed at helping law enforcement, track down illegal guns, ban weapons that are used to target police officers, and continue to keep guns out of the hands of criminals.

“Everyday 8 children die from gun violence in America” said Ramos, a former police officer. “All too often this violence scars our children, our families and our entire community. It changes people’s lives forever. In order to reduce gun violence, special attention must be paid to who has access to who has to firearms, and we must do whatever we can to ensure that kids and criminals can’t get a hold of these devastating weapons.”

Included in the package are bills that he sponsored that would:

• Children’s Weapon Accident Prevention - Legislation which creates new crimes for failing to store weapons safely and directs the commissioner of education to develop a weapons-safety program for schoolchildren (A.5844).
• “Cop-killer” Bullets - Legislation that will help better protect the state’s law enforcement officers by banning the use of exploding and armor-piercing “cop-killer” bullets (A.2881).
• .50-Caliber - Banning the sale, use or possession of .50-caliber or larger weapons (A.3211A).
• Illegal Gun Market prevention - Imposes practices on legitimate gun dealers to thwart straw purchases of weapons and prevent the flow of guns into the illegal market by requiring gun dealers to keep stringent records of sales and report purchases to the superintendent of state police (A.1093).
• Evidence Collection – This legislation requires that law enforcement officers submit evidence to the state’s ballistic identification database when guns, spent bullets and shell casings are found at a crime scene, allowing these materials to be cross-checked against previous records (A.2882).

“By passing these common-sense laws we are protecting our neighborhoods from many of the dangers of gun violence, and bringing back a peace of mind,” Ramos said. “This is our community and I intend to keep it that way.”