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Brigid Bergin: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. I'm Brigid Bergin from the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom filling in for Brian Lehrer, who's off today. On today's show, a school psychologist with guidance for students, parents, and teachers in dealing with the aftermath of the tragedies in Texas and Buffalo, an update on long COVID, and transphobic and trans-affirming entertainment. First, it's so difficult to face that there's been another mass shooting in America less than two weeks since the previous one. Here's Governor Hochul on that in her press conference yesterday.

Governor Hochul: 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.

Brigid: New York has tougher gun laws than Texas, especially in New York City, of course, but there are proposals to tighten regulations further in the wake of these shootings before the legislative session ends one week from today on June 2nd. To talk about what's been proposed, I'm joined by my colleague, Jon Campbell, who covers Albany for WNYC and Gothamist. Hello again, Jon.

Jon Campbell: Hi, Brigid.

Brigid: We were just on together talking to Brian about the new congressional district map, so twice in one week for both of us. We'll also be joined a little later by State Senator Zellnor Myrie, a sponsor of the legislation from last year to hold gun manufacturers liable for gun violence. It was just upheld in a court ruling yesterday. First, Jon, Governor Hochul's response to her own question of what to do beyond lowering the flags to half-mast was, as she put it, to harness the anger and act. Just last week, she announced executive orders and new legislation to address gun violence. What's first on her agenda?

Jon: Well, there's a few different things. One, she issued an executive order regarding the red flag law. That was a bill that was passed a couple of years ago that allowed certain people close to a gun owner or somebody who could be purchasing a gun to file an application with a judge basically for what's known as an extreme risk protection order. Basically, that says there's some reason that this person should not own a gun. They are a threat to themselves or they are a threat to others.

In the case of the Buffalo shooting, the 18-year-old from Conklin, New York, he had actually made a threat on a school paper. It was some sort of school project while he was a senior in high school, where he had said on some sort of paper or a questionnaire that he wanted to commit a murder-suicide. That did trigger a mental health evaluation. The school did alert state police, but nobody filed that extreme risk protection order application.

He was able to purchase a gun, an AR-15, SAFE Act-compliant AR-15 in New York State legally after his 18th birthday. He later modified that gun illegally to put on a bigger magazine, but the governor issued an executive order directing state police to file those extreme risk protection order applications if they have probable cause that somebody is a threat to themselves or others.

That also led to yesterday because the Texas shooting also allegedly committed by an 18-year-old with a legally-purchased AR-15 or multiple in this case, the governor yesterday said she's going to be pushing for legislation that would ban the sale of AR-15s, these semi-automatic rifles to people under the age of 21. Currently, outside of New York City, you can buy them if you're at least 18. She's going to be pushing that as well. That's going to be a big topic of conversation over the next week before lawmakers in their annual session in Albany.

Brigid: A lot to do in a short amount of time here. In terms of the red flag law, does she not need legislators to act on this? Is the executive order enough to compel action going forward?

Jon: The executive order applies to state police because that's what's under the governor's purview. That is part of the governor's administration. She appoints the superintendent of the state police. There could be opportunity for more legislation, but that is what's being debated behind closed doors right now. What to do, what not to do. Assembly Democrats debated some of this stuff yesterday. There's really only three session days left before lawmakers head home to their districts for the year, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. That's when we're going to find out whether anything happens here.

Brigid: In terms of her newest proposal to change the age limit, a federal appeals judge just threw out a similar law in California earlier this month. That decision may be appealed. How much is that factoring into the conversation that lawmakers are having in Albany about this?

Jon: You have seen similar laws being passed. You're right. You said California. There's a similar one in Florida, the state of Washington. There had been various court challenges from the gun-rights activist side of the political sphere, NRA-backed to that kind of thing. California, you're right, there was just a very recent decision in the circuit court, the mid-level appeals court basically that said that banning the sale of AR-15s to those that are age 18, 19, 20, that violates their Second Amendment rights.

You would almost certainly see something like that in New York. In Florida, there's been similar challenges. So far, the state has prevailed in those. This very well could be something that works its way up to the Supreme Court. We all know right now, we have a conservative Supreme Court that is on the verge of expanding Second Amendment rights potentially regarding concealed carry out of a case based in Rensselaer County up here near me in Albany.

It is a tough road judicially speaking right now in the federal courts for gun control legislation. This certainly would be challenged. The governor was asked about that yesterday and she said, "I can't let the courts decide my course of action here." Basically, she said, "I think this is the right thing to do, so I'm going to try to do it," and then after that, let the chips fall where they may.

Brigid: After the shooting in Buffalo, she also proposed new legislation, including enacting something called microstamping. Can you talk about what's involved there?

Jon: Yes, and this is something that goes back to the days of Michael Bloomberg. He made a big push for this in Albany when he was very active in Albany. He was a big supporter of Senate Republicans who had the majority in Albany in those days. He wanted a law that would basically require new guns to have microstamping technology. That is exactly what it sounds like. You fire the gun and it leaves a microscopic stamp or two on the bullet casing.

What that does is allows law enforcement police to know exactly which gun that came from, who purchased it, essentially puts the serial number on that bullet connecting it to the gun. That is something that has been pushed in New York for quite some time. It has never made its way through. It was approved in California in 2007, but it ended up being toothless because it only applied to new models of guns and the gun industry said, "Well, we'll just keep selling the old models," basically.

They've made some changes in recent years. Those changes are being challenged in court. We asked Governor Hochul about that too. She wants this microstamping technology and she basically said, "We're going to learn from California's mistakes or what they learned, what they didn't learn, and try to craft the law in a way that accounts for that," but gun laws get challenged in court. That will almost certainly happen in New York if this passes, but it's not a total given that it will pass even though the Assembly and Senate are both controlled by Democrats.

Brigid: Listeners, we want to bring you into this conversation. What kind of legislative response do you want to see to these mass shootings? Call us at 212-433-WNYC. That's 212-433-9692 or tweet @BrianLehrer. Do you want to see New York State take steps to address some of these laws? What are some of the responses you'd like to see? Do you support some of the proposals laid out, the microstamping proposal, changing the age, why or why not?

Again, that number, 212-433-WNYC. That's 212-433-9692. Jon, we've talked about, really, a pretty broad range of proposals coming from Governor Hochul, and yet you also know there's only about three days left in the session. Right now, we are moving very quickly into a holiday weekend where I anticipate a lot of this work will not be done. Do you think there's really enough time to see action on these proposals?

Jon: You're going to see some sort of action on gun control legislation. How far that goes is really going to be determined by the Democratic majorities in the Senate, in the Assembly. Like I said, the Assembly Democrats did meet behind closed doors to discuss gun control measures as well as responses to the impending Roe v. Wade decision on abortion rights. This is go time, right?

This is where you see these negotiations between the governor and the legislature, the leaders of the Senate, and the Assembly. They will come out with some sort of consensus. Now, that being said, how broad that consensus is, how many bills they pass. The governor even went as far to say yesterday. She wants to ban the sale of AR-15s to those under 21, but she said she'd be open to other guns too and she's going to be looking at that.

There is a bill in the legislature sponsored by, I believe, Senator Hoylman in Manhattan that would ban the sale of all guns to those under the age of 21, which is already the case in New York City by the way. That is something to be discussed too. Senate Democrats have already signaled. They're on board with what the governor laid out yesterday. Assembly Democrats have played their hand a little closer to the vest.

All of these issues get traded for one another, and then you have a big consensus at the end of the session. We in Albany parlance call it the "Big Ugly" because, generally, you see a million different issues in one bill tied together. Whether we see that this time, that remains to be seen. The other thing I should mention too, the governor can bring the legislature back to Albany after they leave for the end of their session. She said she would do as much if the Supreme Court does rule on that concealed carry case that I mentioned earlier.

If the Supreme Court rules against the state, that would essentially make it way easier to get a concealed carry permit in New York State, throughout the state. The only way you can do that now is by showing you have some sort of threat against you or having some sort of firm reason why you need that. It varies by county by county, by judge by judge, who grants those concealed carry permits that the Supreme Court could make it, so you have more of a right to a concealed carry permit. Governor Hochul has said that she could bring back the legislature to address that if the Supreme Court were to rule against the state.

Brigid: Jon, you cover the policy obviously, but you also cover the politics. This is a big election year for Governor Hochul. What are we hearing from her Democratic challengers in the primary on these issues and what are we hearing from some of the Republicans who are seeking to challenge her in November?

Jon: Basically, you're seeing this battle to define the race, right? You have the Republicans who are saying, "Hey, look, crime is going up." They're trying to make the election about the rising crime rates and people not feeling safe in their homes. On the Democratic side, you have Governor Hochul trying to make it about gun control, about abortion rights now with the Roe v. Wade decision.

There's really this fight over trying to define that race. Now, you have had these two mass shootings, including one in Buffalo in the state of New York, the governor's hometown. That really have brought the issue of gun control to the forefront in New York, where it is, en masse, pretty popular. It's relatively popular, but that's not everywhere in the state. Gun control is popular in New York City, but it is not in the rural areas of upstate, which are plentiful out there.

I don't need to tell you. We both grew up out there, but it is a tricky balance to walk strictly politically speaking. The governor once represented it. A very conservative area. She once had an A-rating from the NRA. Now, she's making very clear that she's pushing for stronger gun control laws and that, obviously, will be something that we hear about throughout the campaign.

Brigid: Let's take one of our callers. Jasper in Westport, Connecticut. Jasper, welcome to WNYC.

Jasper: Hey, Brigid. Thanks for taking my call. Yes, I think, right now, it seems like a lot of people are just accepting that there's no real political way out of this. The Democrats have the presidencies, the House of Representatives, and the Senate. It just seems like there's no legislative way out of this, or how is it that it's a minoritarian rule? The fact that abortion and gun rights, all these things, we can't get anything through. My mom's a teacher. We live actually about 40 minutes from Sandy Hook. It's in our recent memory. I was in middle school when that happened.

I fear for my mom all the time, the shooting happening there. I was speaking to her yesterday about maybe there's something that teachers' unions can do to pass, to get through legislation like a mass strike. I wonder if that could influence any change because, right now, the influence is really just in the hands of the NRA, which is a front for gun manufacturers. If they can put their rule out there with actually less of the-- A huge percentage of the country is in favor of all these different gun control measures. I wonder if teachers' unions can do something about it.

Brigid: Jasper, thank you so much for your call. He really raises an interesting point, Jon, because we know certainly that unions like the teacher's union will play a huge role in this upcoming gubernatorial election. Have we heard anything from them about any of these proposals coming from Governor Hochul or the state legislature?

Jon: I can't say that I checked in with the teacher's union specifically on these. Most of these were in response to the Buffalo shooting, which was in a supermarket. You did see national politicians start this debate yesterday in Texas over the number of doorways and entranceways into a school and should we arm teachers and things like that. I did talk to Tom King of the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association and he brought those ideas up in New York.

He said, "Why are we talking about limiting the sale of guns to those 18 and 19 and 20 years old when we could be talking about hardening schools and talking about arming teachers if necessary if they want to be?" You see the debate playing out in New York as you do see it playing out nationally, but we're in the situation where New York does have stronger gun control laws than pretty much anywhere else in the country, right? The AR-15s have to be SAFE Act-compliant.

If they have a detachable magazine, they can't have, say, a pistol grip or a bayonet and things like that, but they can be pretty easily modified as we saw in that Buffalo case. Now, you have this debate in New York. Nationally, the debate seems to be more focused on universal background checks, which the House has passed, the Senate has not. It just goes to show the differences in New York and how much further along New York's gun control laws are than the rest of the country when you see these different debates break out in different parts of the country.

Brigid: We're going to take a short break here. When we get back, we'll hear from State Senator Zellnor Myrie about his liability law that was just upheld, plus more with WNYC and Gothamist Albany reporter Jon Campbell and more of your calls. Stay with us.

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Brigid: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. I'm Brigid Bergin from the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom filling in for Brian Lehrer, who's off today. We've been speaking with WNYC and Gothamist Albany reporter Jon Campbell. We're joined now by New York State Senator Zellnor Myrie, who represents the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Brownsville, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Gowanus, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, South Slope, and Sunset Park. He also chairs the Elections Committee. Welcome back to the show, Senator Myrie.

Senator Zellnor Myrie: Always good to be with you, Brigid.

Brigid: Senator, you were the sponsor of a bill to hold gun manufacturers responsible for mass shootings and gun violence. Not surprisingly perhaps, gun manufacturers sued to block its implementation, but it was just upheld yesterday in federal court. What does that mean going forward?

Senator Myrie: Yes, it was a significant ruling and opinion by the court. Let me just say before I get into that. As I was thinking through the preparation for this interview, pouring over the policy ideas and what the next steps are were really secondary to just uncontrollable crying and outrage. I have to say this and I have to make this point that I am so disgusted with what we are going through. It is intolerable. It is so disrespectful to our right to live and exist in this country in peace.

We have been at the knee of the gun industry refusing to make the changes that are within our power to make. I'm deeply saddened, but I'm also deeply enraged. I think it's important for us to channel that into making some changes. Part of what we tried to do with this law was to hold an industry that makes billions of dollars every single year off of the pain and the suffering of our people to hold them accountable for their reckless behavior. This law was passed last June. It was signed into law last July.

The week before Christmas, instead of introspection, instead of contemplating what they could do differently to keep Americans safe, to keep New Yorkers safe, the gun industry took us into federal court. We were hopeful the entire time that the court would uphold this law as constitutional, that it would uphold New York's right to protect its citizens. Yesterday, we got that news. It has been a terribly dark two weeks for many of us in this country, but yesterday's ruling was a ray of light in that sea of darkness.

Brigid: Well, I think your description of your feelings probably resonates with a lot of our listeners. I just want to acknowledge that. In addition to yesterday's ruling, we've been seeing mass shootings, gun violence of a different sword plagued New York City, where a man was just shot by all accounts at random on the Q Train on Sunday. The handgun in that case had been stolen in Virginia. Does the liability law impact cases like that?

Senator Myrie: It theoretically could, Brigid. The law outlines a number of things for the courts who examine in cases of gun violence and those who were impacted by it. It lays out steps for the court to examine whether or not the gun store, the gun dealer, the gun manufacturer had, in place, proper protective procedures to disallow its product from being stolen. I can imagine a scenario in which a gun store in Virginia, having just been the victim of consecutive robberies, but then not taking any action to secure their store, might be held liable after going through this analysis by the court.

I want to make clear that it is a small percentage of gun dealers and gun stores that are responsible for the overwhelming majority of illegal guns that make their way to our streets. Nearly 76% of guns that are found on a crime scene in New York do not originate in New York. They come from states like Virginia and other states in the South. This is what is commonly referred to as the Iron Pipeline.

Because of inaction on the federal level and because of the protection that they have from a federal statute, the gun industry has been largely not held accountable and allowed to let these types of practices ensue that end up killing our children, end up killing our people here in this state. This law would empower the attorney general, it would empower anyone who has been a victim, and it would empower some of our local city lawyers to go after bad actors in the industry.

Brigid: We are joined now by Assembly Member Jo Anne Simon from District 52, another one of your colleagues in Albany who has been working on some of this legislation to address the issue of illegal guns. Assembly Member Simon, welcome to WNYC. Thanks for calling.

Assembly Member Jo Anne Simon: Thank you, Brigid. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you about this extremely important topic. Good morning, Senator Myrie.

Senator Myrie: Good morning, Jo Anne.

Brigid: Assembly Member, in this case, talk to us about some of what Governor Hochul has talked about in terms of the red flag law and what work you think can be accomplished before the end of the session.

Assembly Member Simon: Well, we've been talking. We conferenced about a number of possible ways that we could address this issue because it's a multi-pronged issue. No one bill is going to make the difference, but the governor signed an executive order that would require law enforcement when presented with the facts and circumstances that demonstrate that someone is in danger of being a risk to themselves or others, which is a tough standard to me and have to have evidence of that, that they would be required to apply for an extreme risk protection order.

I think one of the things we've seen since the law has been in effect is that over a thousand, about 1,400 ERPOs have been issued, which has saved countless lives. Let's remember that two-thirds of gun deaths are suicide. We are protecting people in that respect as well. However, not enough people are using it. Before actually even the Buffalo shooting, I was talking about a public education campaign because people need to know that. When you look at the data, there's only been three issued from Brooklyn, for example, and two from the Bronx and none from any of the boroughs.

Now, there are reasons for that. We have fewer guns that are purchased in New York City. It's harder to get a gun in New York City in many respects. The reality is, as the senator was speaking about the Iron Pipeline, if somebody has a weapon that they got through the Iron Pipeline and they have demonstrated that they're a danger to themselves or others, you have reasons to believe that, that person would be a candidate for an extreme risk protection order. The young man who just shot up the grocery store in Buffalo had come in contact with the police before. He was on Facebook. He told people.

I think what happens is that law enforcement looks at whether they're a direct threat, which is a different analysis for an extreme risk protection order, and doesn't realize that there is this extreme risk protection order that they could apply for. We want to make sure that law enforcement knows, but also that family members, school community members who also have the right to apply may choose not to because they may have fears in their own lives if they're living with someone, but they can go to law enforcement to do that. Too many people don't know that they can apply for such an order.

Brigid: We have a lot of people who want to talk about the legislative ideas that they are interested in. Perhaps we can get some response from both Senator Myrie and Assembly Member Simon. Let's go to Gregory in Long Island City.

Gregory: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Gregory Gross. I'm a United States Armed Forces veteran. I'm also a gun owner and I'm also an [unintelligible 00:27:25] with someone named George Miller from Harlem. Now, the first problem that we are dealing with with the gun issues is not the gun. It's racism that's been here for a long time. The problem we need to do is change the title of the White House to the Chief Executive House of the President of the United States of America.

The second problem is we need to raise the age limit for everyone, male and female, to 21. The third problem is we need to allocate funds to the school where we need new training. These kids out here, they are not getting the academic training after school and they're resorting to crime in the streets. Then the fourth is these kids out here in the streets, they are getting teenagers pregnant. We are not following through with procedures to get the fathers and it's going to go on and on. Then the next problem is, we have to identify the bullets in the bullet cases. Then the next problem is we need to arm the security guards in school during school hours.

Brigid: Gregory, thank you. You have a lot of suggestions there and I appreciate your call. One of the things I think that he's raised is the idea that the solution is not exclusive to legislation that deals with guns or gun violence, but there needs to be also an investment in the community in offering alternatives for students and for young people to engage beyond what's currently offered. It just really raises the question of, what more can be done at the city level and what kind of conversations should be had between perhaps city and state lawmakers to do that? Senator Myrie, can you speak to how we think about this issue of gun violence beyond just legislating around guns themselves?

Senator Myrie: Yes, and, Greg, thanks for calling in, and thank you for your service. I want to address something very briefly that you mentioned at the top and the notion that this issue does not touch on race is an ignorant one. I think people, as you point out, Greg, need to recognize that the history of gun safety and gun regulations in this country is very intertwined with white supremacy and suppressing the ability for Black individuals to defend themselves. That's for another interview perhaps, Brigid.

On the investment in our communities, we passed last year something called the Community Violence Intervention Act. What that law did was for the first time, it declared gun violence a public health crisis. To my knowledge, we are the first state in the nation to do so. It also required that every year, we invest money in programs that prevent and intervene for gun violence. Just this year, we saw the Office of Victim Services provide $6.3 million for the first time to fight gun violence with these types of investments that Greg was mentioning.

You think about all of the other things that people talk about are the root causes of violence and crime more generally. This is what we've been trying to say as the community for decades. We have been calling for more funding for our schools, more funding for after-school programs, greater investments in jobs and job training, more opportunities for affordable housing. The conversation around gun violence cannot be divorced from the lack of investment in Black and brown communities that have left us with few other options.

Brigid: I want to go to another caller. Ed in Westchester. Ed, welcome to WNYC.

Ed: Thank you for taking my call. I have a suggestion that it wouldn't address the Texas or the Buffalo shootings, but it would have addressed and prevented the subway and Newtown shootings. What happened in Newtown is that the shooter killed his mother and took her gun and went over to the school and shut up the school. Now, we have technology in play in telephones, smartphones that limit the use of the device to someone that can unlock the gun in this particular case.

What I'm suggesting is that in New York State, no one be permitted to sell a weapon that does not have some sort of biometric trigger lock that would prevent its use by anyone other than a legal purchaser. That would prevent straw sales. It would knock down, it would make a gun unusable by someone who steals that gun from somebody else, so I suggest that--

Brigid: Forgive me. Can I just ask you, Ed, because I'm not familiar with some of this gun technology? Is this a technology that exists and is in use in other places or is this just an idea you have?

Ed: I believe that that was part of the law and may still be in New Jersey.

Brigid: Great, thank you for your call and thank you for your suggestion. We learn about these issues more unfortunately every time one of these events happens. Let's go to one more caller. Chris in Queens. Chris, welcome to WNYC.

Chris: Hi, Brigid. Thanks for taking my call. First of all, I'd like to address the previous caller's idea about biometrics. 90% of the people who own guns in this country are sport shooters. We go out. We go off the range. One of the things we do is go to a range with our friends and we share guns. I let my friend shoot my Beretta 92FS. He lets me shoot his Colt 1911 .45 ACP. We exchange guns. We share them. Biometrics eliminates that. You're eliminating 90% of shooters' abilities to enjoy sports shooting.

Second of all, I'm a liberal Democrat. I have been all my life. I'm a gun owner. We're not talking about root cause mitigation. We're not talking about poverty. We're not talking about racism. We're not talking about abused people, mental illness. People keep talking about, "Let's limit guns. Let's eliminate AR-15s. Let's make them illegal." That's crazy. What we need to do is address the root causes of gun violence.

Why did this 18-year-old kid barricade students, second and fourth grade and their teachers? Why did he do it? We're not addressing that issue. We're just saying, "He used an AR-15. Let's eliminate the AR-15." The majority of mass shootings in this country are committed with handguns. Look at the statistics. They're not committed with AR-15s. They're committed with handguns. What are we going to do, eliminate handguns now? It's a rabbit hole that we're going down that has no end.

Brigid: Chris, thanks so much for your call. I think the point he's raising there is this idea of eliminating a certain type of weapon may not address the root cause of what's causing the violence itself. Assembly Member Simon, you have raised these issues in terms of some of the legislative responses. I just want to see if you want to respond to that caller at all.

Assembly Member Simon: Well, I think that there is clearly a need for addressing the root causes. Senator Myrie mentioned. We're talking about white supremacy here. That is very much a factor in our lives and the root of so much of the gun industry and the way people use guns, et cetera, et cetera. However, we also need to fund those Cure Violence programs, which we did.

Senator talked about a bill that was passed that would provide money to have those community-based programs to teach young people, for example, how to make choices in their lives and not just pick up a gun, right? There's a good program run by New Yorkers Against Gun Violence in high schools, teaching high school kids how to sort through and how problems in their lives without the first thing they do to run to get a gun. That's very important.

However, when you look at mass shootings and you look at the data, the AR-15 is, in fact, the weapon of choice because it can kill many, many more people in a very short period of time. When someone is about to commit such an act, that's what they want, just maximum damage. The reality is these shootings are, for the most part, using AR-15s. That's why there's some focus on that. Because if someone is going to a shoot ski or they're going to engage in competitive pistol competition, et cetera, they're not using an AR-15. Nobody is hunting deer with an AR-15. We can't divorce that completely from the conversation.

Brigid: Assembly Member Jo Anne Simon, thank you so much for joining us and for weighing in on this really crucial issue. It was great to have you in this conversation today.

Assembly Member Simon: Thank you.

Brigid: In our last couple of minutes in this segment, I want to go back to Senator Myrie. There have been these proposals that we've talked about. How likely do you believe these proposals from Governor Hochul that Jon was laying out for us will be taken up before the session ends?

Senator Myrie: I think the legislature has demonstrated its ability to pass sweeping gun safety laws. We mentioned some of them in our conversation this morning. We're always open to having serious discussions about how we can further advance the safety of New Yorkers and set an example for the rest of the country. I look forward to having those conversations over the next couple of days.

I think Jon rightly alluded to the short amount of time that we have. If anyone has been following Albany, we have done a lot of things in short windows many times. When it comes to the safety of our neighbors, when it comes to the safety of our families, we are going to bring every tool to bear in order to protect New Yorkers all over the state. I'm optimistic that we will get some things done.

I can't say exactly what and how many, but I look forward again to doing everything in my power to ensure that we're keeping New Yorkers safe. I want to just very quickly if I can, Brigid, address what was brought up by this caller who said that we don't talk about poverty and we don't talk about the root causes of gun violence. My earlier soliloquy notwithstanding, we have been talking about this.

When we asked for more resources, we're told that you can't get them. There are structural issues that prevent us. When I say "us" in this context, I mean Black and brown communities where gun violence is most prevalent. I'm talking about Black males who are 14 times more likely to be killed by a gun than their white counterparts. I'm talking about Black women who, the CDC just reported, witnessed the highest increases of homicides by way of guns in 2020.

When we have cried out for these resources, we do not get them. I'm a little tweaked by those criticisms because it's just not based in reality. We can do two things at once. We can invest in our communities, we can provide the requisite resources, and we can attack the dangerous instrument that has grave consequences literally for the misuse. I plan on doing that, and I hope my colleagues will be joining us as well.

Brigid: Thank you, Senator Myrie. Jon, before we wrap up, I want to give you the last word since you helped start us out today. You will be in a position to hold folks like Senator Myrie, Assembly Member Simon accountable for what happens between now and the end of this session. What are you going to be watching for as the priorities in the time that remains?

Jon: I think that the biggest one we're going to be watching for is what Governor Hochul laid out yesterday that the ban on AR-15 sales and potentially other guns to those under the age of 21, that is the one where it's going to be very interesting to watch how and if she can reach consensus with Assembly Democrats with Senate Democrats. That is the headline proposal. That's the one that I'm going to be watching most closely.

Brigid: We're going to have to leave it there. Thank you to Senator Zellnor Myrie and Assembly Member Jo Anne Simon, both from Brooklyn, and to my colleague, Jon Campbell, who covers Albany for WNYC and Gothamist. We really appreciate you being here.

Jon: Thank you.

 

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