Gun Regulation Effort Gets Support From Bayside Leader: Report

BAYSIDE, QUEENS — A Bayside politician spoke out in support of New York State Attorney General Letitia James’ request to close a legal loophole that enables people to buy guns without serial numbers.

In a letter written on Aug. 19, James urged the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, or ATF, to broaden its definition of ‘firearm,’ to include firearms parts kits, including ghost guns, which are firearms without a serial number that can be bought online and assembled at home — rendering the weapons untraceable.

Gun kits aren’t currently included under the law enforcement agency’s definition, which means they aren’t federally regulated under the Gun Control Act. The bureau, however, proposed amending its firearm definition to include gun kits on May 21 — a choice that James said would take “a significant step toward remedying” the rise in gun crimes and prevalence of unregulated firearms.

“Ghost guns are just as dangerous as traditional firearms, yet our laws don’t reflect that reality,” wrote James in her letter. “For the safety of our communities, it’s past time we change that.”

State Sen. John Liu of Bayside was among a group of Queens politicians who spoke out in support of James’ letter, according to the Queens Chronicle.

Liu called the federal effort to fight ghost guns “urgent,” adding that while the city and state have worked to get illegal guns off the street through state legislator and buy-back initiatives “the federal government and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) need to do their part and revise their regulations to close the ghost gun loophole to help keep us all safe.”

Not all politicians, however, agree with James, Liu, and a host of others in New York.

House GOP members, for instance, believe that the ATF doesn’t have the authority to expand the definition of firearm, as suggested in its proposed rule.

“The proposed rule would expand the definition of ‘frame or receiver’ to include any part of a firearm that can house even one mechanism of the firing process,” said Republican lawmakers who opposed the rule, the Queens Chronicle reported.

For now, the bureaus rule is under a 90-day comment period.