Getting ghost guns off the street

Schumer addresses gun violence in Orange and Ulster Counties

By Mark Reynolds
Posted 2/19/20

On Monday Senator Chuck Schumer, surrounded by elected officials and members of the law enforcement community, held a press conference at the City of Kingston Police Department, seeking immediate …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Getting ghost guns off the street

Schumer addresses gun violence in Orange and Ulster Counties

Posted

On Monday Senator Chuck Schumer, surrounded by elected officials and members of the law enforcement community, held a press conference at the City of Kingston Police Department, seeking immediate action to stop the flow of unmarked, unregistered and untraceable weapons, known as ‘ghost guns,’ into the Hudson Valley. Senator Schumer referenced three ongoing homicide investigations in Ulster County, “all related to gun violence,” that law enforcement is working diligently to solve.

Schumer said Ghost Guns have, “deadly troubling consequences in peaceful places like Orange and Ulster Counties.” He said 13 of these guns were recently recovered in a single Orange County investigation by state and local law enforcement.

“I understand that some of those guns have been used in other crimes we’ve seen as well,” Schumer said.

Schumer said one of the most effective tools the police have is to be able to trace where the guns used in crimes come from, “because that can tell you how the crime was committed, who committed it and who is supplying the guns.”

Schumer said “bad guys” find ways around the requirement to have serial number on guns, a provision that has been in effect since 1968.

“That’s what they’ve done here. The ghost gun you buy in parts and none of them have serial numbers and none of them require a background check. So you go to four different places and get four different parts and you’ve got a gun that can’t be traced,” he said.

The Senator said he is a firm believe in the 2nd amendment and the right to bear arms.

“I’ve always said you can’t have the first, fourth, fifth and sixth amendments be expansive and the second amendment seen through a little peephole but there are always limits. One of them is background checks and why, not because we want to prevent law abiding people from getting guns, we want to prevent felons, spousal abusers and those adjudicated mentally ill from getting guns and that’s why there’s a background check,” he said.

Schumer said today he was putting the federal government on notice.

“It’s time to do something about those [ghost] guns,” he said. “I am asking the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to do two things; amend the definition of a firearm to include these deadly parts. If you have the barrel, if you have the base, if you have the stock of a gun it should also be like a gun, so it’s a firearm. Second, to share information to the men and women of law enforcement so they have knowledge of what’s happened; we need cooperation and ATF is supposed to do that and if they do those two things we could stop the scourge of those guns.”

Schumer said this action by the DOJ and ATF does not need legislation, it can be done with a, “flick of a pen and I’m hopeful they can get that done.”

Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan thanked the Senator for all of the support he has given to the county and region.

“Here in Ulster County I think we’re unified that gun violence is a growing problem. We’ve been enacting and following a series of laws, including the recent red flag law, that we think in conjunction with this legislation will really help crack down on this epidemic. We collectively feel strongly about this and take our responsibility for public safety extremely seriously.” he said. “Thank you Senator Schumer, we stand with you.”

Kingston Mayor Steve Noble said gun violence affects cities both large and small.

“We’re all here to say that we’re going to stand together to continue to fight gun violence and we’re going to use every law and every means necessary,” Noble said. “We’re going to change this so that ghost guns can be further identified...but we also have to continue to work to fight gun violence and we have to do it together and do it from the ground up.”

Ulster County Sheriff Juan Figueroa said it is important for law enforcement to work with the communities in the county.

“The community has to tell us when something goes wrong because it can happen to anybody in their our own families and without the communities help, law enforcement can’t accomplish this mission of going after these guns,” he said.

Kingston Police Chief Egidio Tinti said his police officer’s jobs are made infinitely more difficult if they do not have the means to trace the individual parts that are used to construct ghost guns.

“The ability to be able to track even a small piece of that firearm back to where it came from will help in the investigation of gun violence that plagues our small cities,” he said.

City of Newburgh Police Chief Douglas Solomon said, “we have more than our share of gun violence. We recover firearms almost on a daily basis and recovering a firearm only solves the immediate threat. An important part of investigations is being able to trace where these firearms come from to ensure a more global and regional response and to identify trends involved in gun violence. This [initiative] is an important piece towards stemming the violence and an important piece to assisting us in investigations.”

Lt. Jeffrey Thoelen, Bureau Commander of Operations for the City of Middletown, described these initiatives as, “common sense provisions that any law enforcement officer will support because they are designed to keep very dangerous weapons out of the hands of people who are really not supposed to have them. There are numerous responsible gun owners in New York who abide by some of the most comprehensive and strictest gun laws in the nation. These ghost guns are presenting a clear and present danger because of our inability to follow up on in investigations. They serve no recreational or sporting purpose.”