NY State Senate Bill 2025-S1026

Senate Bill S1026

2025-2026 Legislative Session

Relates to establishing a voluntary waiver of the right to purchase firearms, rifles or shotguns

download bill text pdf

Current Bill Status - In Senate Committee Finance Committee

Introduced
- In Committee Assembly
- In Committee Senate
- On Floor Calendar Assembly
- On Floor Calendar Senate
- Passed Assembly
- Passed Senate
Delivered to Governor
Signed By Governor

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	Assembly Actions - Lowercase Senate Actions - UPPERCASE
Jan 08, 2025	referred to finance

2025-S1026 (ACTIVE) - Details

See Assembly Version of this Bill:: A198
Current Committee:: Senate Finance
Law Section:: Executive Law
Laws Affected:: Add §221-e, Exec L
Versions Introduced in Other Legislative Sessions:: 2019-2020: A11121
2021-2022: S5814, A1033
2023-2024: S2086, A565

2025-S1026 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Relates to establishing a voluntary waiver of the right to purchase firearms, rifles or shotguns; requires the division of state police to maintain statewide records of individuals who have waived the right to purchase firearms, rifles, or shotguns and any revocations of such waivers.

2025-S1026 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S1026

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

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) - PASSED SENATE /A565A (Paulin) - referred to
governmental operations

2023: S2086A governmental(Kavanagh) operations - REFERRED TO
FINANCE/A565A (Paulin) -referred to

2022: S5814A governmental(Kavanagh) operations - REFERRED TO
FINANCE/A1033A (Paulin)-referred to

2021: S5814A governmental(Kavanagh) operations - REFERRED TO
FINANCE/A1033A (Paulin)-referred to

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

To be determined.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have
become a law.

2025-S1026 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                             
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   1026
 
                        2025-2026 Regular Sessions
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                                (PREFILED)
 
                              January 8, 2025
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by Sen. KAVANAGH -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
   printed to be committed to the Committee on Finance
 
 AN ACT to amend the executive law, in relation to establishing a  volun-
   tary waiver of the right to purchase firearms, rifles, or shotguns

   THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
 
   Section 1. The executive law is amended by adding a new section  221-e
 to read as follows:
   §  221-E.  VOLUNTARY  WAIVER OF RIGHT TO PURCHASE FIREARMS, RIFLES, OR
 SHOTGUNS.  1. AN INDIVIDUAL MAY FILE A VOLUNTARY WAIVER OF THE RIGHT  TO
 PURCHASE  A FIREARM, RIFLE OR SHOTGUN WITH THE DIVISION OF STATE POLICE,
 IN A MANNER THAT SHALL BE DETERMINED BY THE SUPERINTENDENT.  SUCH  INDI-
 VIDUAL  SHALL  THEN  BE  PROHIBITED FROM PURCHASING FIREARMS, RIFLES AND
 SHOTGUNS. THE DIVISION OF STATE POLICE  SHALL  VERIFY  THE  INDIVIDUAL'S
 IDENTITY  PRIOR TO ACCEPTING SUCH FORM. THE INDIVIDUAL FILING THE WAIVER
 MAY PROVIDE AN ADDITIONAL INDIVIDUAL TO BE CONTACTED IF  THE  WAIVER  IS
 REVOKED AS SET FORTH IN SUBDIVISION THREE OF THIS SECTION.
   2.  THE  DIVISION  OF STATE POLICE SHALL MAINTAIN STATEWIDE RECORDS OF
 INDIVIDUALS WHO WAIVE THE RIGHT TO PURCHASE FIREARMS, RIFLES OR SHOTGUNS
 AS SET FORTH IN SUBDIVISION ONE OF THIS SECTION AND REVOCATIONS OF  SUCH
 WAIVERS  AS SET FORTH IN SUBDIVISION THREE OF THIS SECTION. SUCH RECORDS
 SHALL BE MAINTAINED FOR INTERNAL USE  IN  A  MANNER  DETERMINED  BY  THE
 SUPERINTENDENT.  THE  DIVISION  OF  STATE POLICE SHALL ENTER EACH WAIVER
 INTO THE NATIONAL INSTANT CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECK SYSTEM AND ANY OTHER
 FEDERAL OR STATE COMPUTER-BASED SYSTEMS USED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES
 OR OTHERS TO IDENTIFY PROHIBITED  PURCHASERS  OF  FIREARMS,  RIFLES  AND
 SHOTGUNS WITHIN TWENTY-FOUR HOURS OF RECEIPT OF THE WAIVER.
   3. AN INDIVIDUAL MAY FILE A REVOCATION OF THE WAIVER WITH THE DIVISION
 OF  STATE  POLICE  IN A FORM THAT SHALL BE DETERMINED BY THE SUPERINTEN-
 DENT. THE DIVISION OF STATE POLICE SHALL VERIFY THE INDIVIDUAL'S IDENTI-
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.

                                                            LBD01026-01-5
 S. 1026                             2
 
 TY PRIOR TO ACCEPTING SUCH REVOCATION.  TWENTY-ONE DAYS AFTER  RECEIVING
 THE REVOCATION, THE DIVISION OF STATE POLICE SHALL REMOVE THE INDIVIDUAL
 FROM THE NATIONAL INSTANT CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECK SYSTEM AND ANY OTHER
 FEDERAL OR STATE COMPUTER-BASED SYSTEMS USED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES
 OR  OTHERS  TO  IDENTIFY  PROHIBITED  PURCHASERS OF FIREARMS, RIFLES AND
 SHOTGUNS, TO INDICATE THAT THE INDIVIDUAL  IS  NO  LONGER  A  PROHIBITED
 PURCHASER OF FIREARMS, RIFLES OR SHOTGUNS DUE TO THE VOLUNTARY WAIVER.
   4.  A  WAIVER PURSUANT TO THIS SECTION MAY NOT BE REQUIRED OF AN INDI-
 VIDUAL AS A CONDITION FOR RECEIVING EMPLOYMENT, BENEFITS OR SERVICES.
   5. NO RECORDS REQUIRED BY THIS SECTION SHALL BE SUBJECT TO  DISCLOSURE
 AND  SHALL  BE CONFIDENTIAL WITH RESPECT TO ALL MATTERS INVOLVING HEALTH
 CARE, EMPLOYMENT, EDUCATION, HOUSING,  INSURANCE,  GOVERNMENT  BENEFITS,
 AND CONTRACTING.
   6. ANY INFORMATION ABOUT AN INDIVIDUAL THAT IS CONTAINED IN, OR TRANS-
 MITTED  TO,  THE  DIVISION  OF  STATE  POLICE  SHALL NOT BE USED FOR ANY
 PURPOSE OTHER THAN TO DETERMINE THE ELIGIBILITY  OF  THE  INDIVIDUAL  TO
 RECEIVE A FIREARM.
   7.  ANY PERSON WHO KNOWINGLY MAKES A FALSE STATEMENT OR REPRESENTATION
 REGARDING SUCH PERSON'S IDENTITY WHEN SUBMITTING A VOLUNTARY  WAIVER  OF
 THE  RIGHT  TO  PURCHASE  A FIREARM, RIFLE OR SHOTGUN SHALL BE GUILTY OF
 OFFERING A FALSE INSTRUMENT FOR FILING IN THE SECOND DEGREE, AS  DEFINED
 BY SECTION 175.30 OF THE PENAL LAW.
   §  2.  This  act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
 have become a law.

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