Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces New Gun Safety Actions to Protect New Yorkers From Federal Firearm Regulation Rollbacks

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced actions in response to the Trump Administration's proposed rollbacks that would make sweeping and dangerous changes to federal firearms regulations. Earlier this year, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) announced changes to more than 30 rules that will make it easier for dangerous individuals to obtain firearms and harder to hold bad actors in the firearms industry accountable. In response, New York State is taking action by increasing enforcement and education and exploring legislative changes that will blunt the effect of many of these changes and preserve public safety.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page posted photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

What a crowd we have here this morning. I want to thank all of you for attending. Please sit down, except those behind me. You're standing. I want to first of all recognize Superintendent Steven James, and thank him for really answering the call. Especially when I first appointed him, I said, "We're going to get guns off our streets."

We don't make them in New York, they're coming from somewhere else, and we're going to stop the pipeline once and for all. And we've made tremendous progress. But one illegal gun on our streets is one too many. And I thank all of our advocates and all the organizers, Marianna Mitchem from Everytown for Gun Safety, a tremendous national organization keeping the spotlight on this issue.

Rebecca Fischer, New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, I thank her for being such an incredible champion and stalwart. Moms Demand Action - let's hear it for the moms, let's hear it for the moms that are here. Thank you for showing up in your red T-shirts all over the state. You're everywhere, right?

And Iesha Sekou, Street Corner Resources, and a person with such heart, such compassion for the work she does. We are blessed to have her in the fight with us. And also Assemblymember Monique Chandler-Waterman is here. Monique, where are you? Monique's right here. All right. There you go. There you are. Gosh, she's - Monique is in the house. And all the advocates, but also the students here today. Let's give it to our students who are going to carry on the fight.

And now we're here today because Washington, once again, has abdicated [its] sworn and solemn duty to protect the American people, in a shameless, shameless, shameless giveaway to the gun lobby. No surprises, but here we are, that the Justice Department is proposing dangerous changes to our federal gun law regulations. Now, they've been on the books a long time, but all of a sudden they think, "How can - one other way can we help our friends in the gun lobby and not give a damn about the safety of Americans?" They've just demonstrated again they're willing to go there.

So they want to undo more than 30 common sense rules, to weaken background checks and make it easier for violent people, criminals, and those suffering from mental illness to get their hands on firearms, including weapons of war. So that's what we're up against. That's what we're up against. Now, a lot has been written about these rollbacks, but one scathing assessment stood out. I want to read this to you: "The risk may be minimal or may be considerably greater, up to and including potential mass casualty events." That was what was said about the potential of these changes. Now, that wasn't a quote from Everytown, wasn't a quote from Moms Demand Action. That's straight from the Bureau of Tobacco - Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, ATF.

The administration is admitting these actions could lead to catastrophic results - mass killings. They're admitting it. The agency charged with stopping gun violence acknowledges the grave, grave dangers of this decision. So we have the Trump administration and their pushover enablers in Congress. Now, they'll talk a big game on law and order: "Oh, no, we're all about law and order, right?" But behind the bluster is a blatant disregard for public safety. They show it over and over again. This is an administration that is so willing to endanger the lives of our children if it satisfies their deep-pocketed buddies at the NRA. That's what this is about. Because otherwise, why do they feel the need to loosen the gun laws? When they do this, the gun stores will sales - sales will soar - little bit of a tongue twister there. The sales will soar, okay?

Their campaigns stay flush. They can raise all this money. The more guns that are sold, the more money gets pumped into the system, right? See the connection? And who pays? Who pays the price? Americans. Especially our young people. Kids. Our babies. Our babies. And people are paying with an empty seat at the dinner table. The nightmares of a grieving mom. And I'm standing amongst some grieving moms. The tears of a child whose father never comes home.

Now here in New York, I've been laser focused on this since I was elected back in 2022. Top priority. Crime was off the charts back then. I said, "It is unsustainable. We cannot keep this, this violence in our streets, the bloodshed, it has to stop. Today." We now have gun violence at an all-time low in New York State. All-time low. It's not an accident. It's about investments in public safety and police, historic investments. Smart, targeted law enforcement - seizing illegal guns at record rates, going after emerging threats like those 3D-printed ghost guns. We banned those. We banned those. You know what we also did in our budget? We also banned the sale of the 3D printers in the state of New York, so even if you wanted to make your kitchen table into a munitions factory, you can't do that anymore without facing down the law of the State of New York. Okay? So that was just done a couple months ago.

But also, I believe one of the reasons we're safe is because we've made investments and support our advocates in the streets. I mean, these are the eyes and ears. They're the ones who sometimes talk to the kids. Maybe people have been through the system before, have an experience that they don't want other kids to go through, and I honor them and thank them for turning a corner. But also not just turning the corner for themselves, but using that to help other kids and spare them what they may have gone through. I am so proud of that, and I'm going to continue supporting them.

So all of this together has made a difference. New Yorkers are safer today, more than they were just a few short years ago. But I'm not going to let the rogue cops in Washington undermine our progress. Not going there. Not going there. You're not going to take us backwards. We've come too far. Because we have fought to pass the toughest state level gun laws in America, and I'm proud of that. Very proud of that. The laws that will shield us from many of these changes.

Here's what we're going to do. My administration will make sure our laws are enforced, and today, I'm announcing that New York State Police will ramp up on-site inspections at all gun dealers - you are on notice - that are linked to firearms and recovered at a crime. We're watching, okay? Okay, we're watching. Bad actors who think these new federal changes will give them cover to sell guns to anyone without a thorough background check.

A background check is everything, it's so critical. Also, mental health screening - we need to know. There's people who should not have a gun in their hands, and the federal government doesn't give a damn. But we do, we do. So you're not going to be able to give someone a gun, sell a gun to someone without a mental health screening, because you're going to be in for a rude awakening. This is New York. Welcome to a state that actually likes keeping people alive. We like keeping people alive in this state. So if you don't follow our laws, oh, boy, consequences. Our police will work directly with our Attorney General, Tish James, and our District Attorneys to shut you down. Shut 'em down. Follow the law or you're going down. Follow the laws or we're shutting you down.

And we're not stopping at our own state borders. No, in New York, 80 percent of the guns recovered at crime scenes originate in other states - 80 percent, 80 percent. And historically, we count on - let me say this again, we used to be able, used to be able to count on the ATF to lead law enforcement against interstate gun traffickers. I don't know what they're doing now. Staying home, collecting a paycheck - I don't know what they're doing. But the Acting Attorney General, Todd Blanche, is cutting them off at the knees, and to help - he doesn't even want them. There's some people who probably want to do their jobs. They become - they became part of the ATF because they want to do the right thing, and now they're being told by the big bosses, "You cannot." That is - that is disgraceful.

So to help fill the void, what I'm going to do is reconvene our Interstate Task Force on illegal guns. I organized this task force shortly after taking office, bringing together nine states to stem the tide of illegal guns. Why did we do this? Because I realized, as we just pointed out, the guns are coming from gun shows in Pennsylvania. They're going into people's trunks, coming up I-81, going up to Syracuse, or heading over to the Bronx. That's the pipeline. And they might get into Pennsylvania because they're coming up from Georgia. All over the pipeline. So I said, "Wait, are we talking to the other states?" Because they know what's happening in their states. Soon as they cross the border, someone says, "Okay, it's not my problem." It is your problem.

We're going to work together to keep Americans alive. So we convened this task force. I've been in their meetings, they're dedicated. We are now sharing information that was never shared before. So we're going to recharge that, add more groups to this, add more states. I've got about 11 now. A few more. No one else has done this in the country. There's no other collaboration like this anywhere else. It started in New York, we're going to continue this. So we're going to reconvene this fall, share information and bust the rogue dealers. Your days are numbered.

Now, there's one more outrageous rollback that'll create real vulnerabilities in New York. We have a plan. We have a plan to get out of it. In a staggering, staggering defiance of common sense, the Department of Justice actually wants to allow the sale of firearms online. I'm not kidding. Republicans in Washington want to make it as easy as ordering up some pizza on DoorDash. Okay? What, are you going to have the guns delivered to your door now? Is this what we're talking about? A few clicks and boom, a firearm is on the way. Just like a pair of shoes - come on in, right? What the hell is happening in this country? People lost their minds? They lost their minds? Why would they propose something so outrageous and dangerous? Oh, let's follow the money.

Last year, Donald Trump Jr. helped to take an online gun retailer public, so there's more money for the Trump family, right? Did I just read they already made over $2 billion? Oh, that's not enough. They have to raise some - make some more. So the Trump family's involved in this. He calls it the Amazon of guns. Does that make you feel better? Hell no. This is the world they want to create. This is the scale of corruption. It's about making money for them, not caring about the bloodshed that's going to follow because of this insane idea. So they put people's lives at risk so the President's son can make a quick buck. It's perverse, it's unconscionable, and we won't stand for it in New York. In the upcoming legislative session, I know our council - our Assemblymember over there knows what we're going to do. She knows what we're going to do. She says, "I'm going to propose a new law that'll require all gun sales in the state of New York to have to occur in person." No online sales. None. None. Not happening. Not happening. And I'll fight tooth and nail against a lot of opposition that'll be out there to make sure that it's passed, and I will sign it. And I will sign it.

Now let me just conclude with this: It shouldn't have to be this way. We worked hard, focusing on New Yorkers, more safety. Every life matters, and we're still losing children, even a 12-year-old - 12-year-old baby. Let's keep that child in our prayers, and that family. There's still horrible tragedies, but the numbers are coming down because of so many of you in this room. And people - there are more people alive and enjoying this summer with their families, and heading into the school year, that otherwise might not have. But we have to keep that going. We have to keep that going.

But we should not have to do so much to protect our people against the federal government, right? They're supposed to be on our side. ATF was created to protect people. Now they've been thrown off to the sidelines. They don't give a damn. They may, some of their members may, but not the leadership, not the orders that are coming from the top. But that's just the reality with this administration. Time and time again, they've jeopardized public safety to settle political scores or to enrich themselves. But here's the good news. We're New Yorkers. We're New Yorkers. We're New Yorkers. At every turn, we step up and we hold the line. And we say no. We say no. We say no. Not going there. Not happening. Not going there.

So every time they try, we've got a lot of strategies. Believe me, we've done a lot in this last couple years. They tried to defund our plan - our transit security officers. Remember this? $187 million. Homeland Security money. Get that? Homeland. We are the homeland. Defund police and fire and people on the subways who protect us, and they took it away. I called up the President - "Mr. President, do I have to say you're defunding the police? Is that what you guys are doing now? That's not going to play well with your people. I'm telling you. I'm just telling you." So we got the money back. We beat them in court. We forced them to restore it, and today is no different. They can turn a blind eye to these illicit gun dealers and violent criminals, but New York never will. Never will.

We will continue to do everything in our power to enforce our strongest-in-the-nation gun laws, keep guns away from dangerous people and protect our communities. That's what our job is. So while we have this administration in Washington fighting against us - you picked a fight with the wrong people. We're here to fight back.

Thank you, everybody. No, let me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. I'm fired up.