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NY area leaders call for action after Texas school shooting
Schools all across the NY area are stepping up police patrols in the wake of the horrific school shooting in Texas.
NEW YORK - Schools across the tri-state area are stepping up police patrols in the wake of the horrific school shooting in Texas, as local leaders slam inaction on gun control and call for immediate change.
New York State troopers will be conducting daily check-ins at schools in New York from now until the end of the school year, as Governor Kathy Hochul said that she called an emergency meeting with authorities on Wednesday morning.
Hochul said Wednesday she wants to raise to 21 the age to legally purchase the type of weapons used in the mass shootings in Buffalo and Texas, and possible other firearms as well.
"I don’t want 18-year-olds to have guns, at least not in the state of New York," Hochul said at a press briefing.
The Democrat said she wants to work with the state Legislature to raise the legal purchasing age for AR-style rifles "at minimum ... but I'm going to take a look at everything."
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Michele Gay
FOX 5 NY speaks with Michele Gay, who lost her daughter Josephine Grace in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shoooting, about the recent tragedy at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
Meanwhile, in New York City, Mayor Eric Adams pleaded with parents to check their children's bedrooms and backpacks before they head to school.
In a joint briefing, Adams announced that 20 guns have been found in city schools since the beginning of the school year, including two loaded guns found just last week. Additionally, the NYPD says that school safety agents have recovered 5,546 dangerous instruments from schools so far this year..
And New York is not alone in the call for new gun control measures in the wake of the Texas tragedy. Governor Phil Murphy addressed the New Jersey Legislature on Wednesday.
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"Let's send the message now," Murphy said. "Let's act before our nation gets lulled back into its slumber - as it was already beginning to do after the murders in Buffalo."
Hochul, a Buffalo native, appeared to get emotional at her briefing ahead of a meeting a multi-state task force on illegal guns.
"Just this morning, as we’re all reeling with the pain, I’m asking myself as governor: Am I supposed to just leave all the flags at half-mast? They’re still at half-mast from Buffalo," said Hochul.
With the Associated Press.