BILL NUMBER: S1026A
SPONSOR: KAVANAGH
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the executive law, in relation to establishing a volun-
tary waiver of the right to purchase firearms, rifles, or shotguns
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
This bill would allow individuals to waive their right to purchase
firearms, rifles or shotguns and require the state police to enter such
waivers into the national criminal background check system.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section one of the bill amends the executive law by adding section 221-e
to allow individuals to waive their right to purchase firearms, rifles
and shotguns, as well as a process by which the waiver can be filed and
revoked. This section requires the state police to maintain statewide
records of those individuals who have chosen to waive their right to own
a firearm, rifle, and shotgun as well as report the information to the
New York national criminal background check system. This section also
sets forth privacy protections for such records.
Section two of the bill sets forth the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
The COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed widespread uncertainty. The world
has been upended, and there is so much despair. Gun violence has
increased, with frequent shootings recounted in New York and around the
country. Reported suicides, which were already on the rise according to
the Centers for Disease Control, and have accounted for two-thirds of
gun deaths in the United States, have been increasing in the current
environment. According to the Bloomberg American Health Initiative,
"while firearms are used in less than 10 percent of all suicide
attempts, they account for more than half of all suicide deaths."
Recently in The Wall Street Journal, Frederick Vars and Ian Ayres advo-
cated a legislative solution in "Suicide Accounts for Most Gun Deaths. A
Libertarian Approach Could Help." Their plan is straightforward: to
create a mechanism that allows people to voluntarily give up their right
to purchase guns, but also to provide the individuals the ability to
revoke that decision at a later time if they so choose. Washington and
Virginia have recently enacted legislation, and nine other States,
including Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Wisconsin, have introduced simi-
lar bills in the legislatures. Vars and Ayres have conducted research
and published numerous articles supporting this proposal, including a
survey where 46 percent of 200 psychiatric patients in Alabama indicated
that they would waive their rights given the opportunity.
A system that allows individuals to voluntarily waive their rights to
purchase firearms, rifles and shotguns can have an impact on all these
sobering statistics. Essentially, it is allowing people to create a
self-imposed pause, similar to a waiting period. This bill allows some-
one who recognizes their own vulnerability to elect willingly, voluntar-
ily and confidentially to waive their right, and then revoke the volun-
tary.waiver after twenty-one days. This has the potential to save lives.
We are in a pandemic that has seen millions of Americans suffering in a
myriad of ways. New York State should enact this bill to allow people
the opportunity to voluntarily take steps to protect themselves from
themselves. Creating an option for people to ban themselves from
purchasing firearms, rifles and shotguns has the potential to save them
from hurting themselves and from hurting others.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2024: S2086A (Kavanagh) governmental operations-PASSED SENATE /A565A
(Paulin) - referred to
2023: S2086A (Kavanagh) governmental operations-REFERRED TO FINANCE
/A565A (Paulin) - referred to
2022: S5814A (Kavanagh) governmental operations-REFERRED TO FINANCE
/A1033A (Paulin) - referred to
2021: S5814A (Kavanagh) - REFERRED TO FINANCE /A1033A (Paulin) -
referred to governmental operations
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
To be determined.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have
become a law.