WBAI Max and Murphy: From Brownsville to El Paso to Albany: NY Gun Control Advocates Map Next Steps

Senator Michael Gianaris joined the WBAI Max & Murphy Show to discuss that agenda on Wednesday. He said senators planned to again take up a measure to require the state’s Department of Criminal Justice Services to release quarterly data on the origin of crime guns. And he talked through the curious history of a provision of the 2013 SAFE Act pertaining to ammunition-purchase background checks that was delayed indefinitely by a memorandum of understanding between the governor and a Republican leader.

The real debate, Gianaris made clear, is on the national level:

The overarching problem is a national one. We have a federal government that is captive to the NRA, refuses to take measures to make the country safer, we are the worst country in the world as it relates to being sensible and restrictive about firearms, and I think given that we have babies and children gunned down in grade school, and yet the NRA continues to hold sway over congress and keep them from doing anything about it. I think the answer’s going to be electoral. I hope in 2020 people will realize that if they want the kind of change that would make them safer, they need to have a different group of elected officials.

Gianaris also discussed the Albany agenda in 2020, questions about his ideological consistency and how the Queens DA race might have reshaped the borough’s politics. Her our conversation below or listen to the full show for a discussion about wrinkles in state prison policy.

Listen to the full podcast with Senator Gianaris here.