In Wake Of Latest Mass Shootings, Fed Up N.Y Lawmakers Call On Washington To Finally Act On Gun Reform
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- New York lawmakers say they have had just about enough of mass shootings.
In response to the shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, over the weekend, which left a combined 29 dead and at least 50 injured, Sen. Chuck Schumer held a press conference Sunday night and called on Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to push gun legislation -- already passed by the House -- through the Senate that would close loopholes on background checks and assault weapons.
"It has been 150 days since the House passed its legislation and 14,000 people, 14,000, have died as a result of gun violence since the House passed the bill," Schumer said. "Leader McConnell, do the right thing. Call an emergency session ... and maybe we can do something to begin dealing with gun laws in a rational way."
In the Texas border city of El Paso, a gunman opened fire Saturday morning in a shopping area packed with thousands of people during the busy back-to-school season. The attack killed 20 and wounded more than two dozen, many of them critically.
MORE: El Paso Shooting: Prosecutors To Seek Death Penalty For "Domestic Terrorism"
Hours later in Dayton, Ohio, a gunman wearing body armor and carrying extra magazines opened fire in a popular nightlife area, killing nine and injuring at least 26 people.
The attacks came less than a week after a 19-year-old gunman killed three people and injured 13 others at the popular Gilroy Garlic Festival in California before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
New York Republican Congressman Peter King also said the shootings demonstrate the need to address gun violence, tweeting, "Sensible gun regulation is essential as is psychological study of who resorts to gun violence & why/what early indicators there might be."
Gov. Andrew Como offered condolences on behalf of all New Yorkers while condemning Washington, saying, "This insanity must stop and it must stop now. Those who are unwilling to do anything about it are complicit. I am sick of the excuses. I don't want to hear 'we can't' -- because we know we can, and you just 'don't'.
"Our hearts break for these families," he added. "On behalf of all New Yorkers, I'm sorry you live in a country with a federal government that allows this to happen and does nothing."
The shootings were the 21st and 22nd mass killings of 2019 in the U.S., according to the AP/USA Today/Northeastern University mass murder database that tracks homicides where four or more people killed — not including the offender.
Including the two latest attacks, 125 people had been killed in the 2019 shootings.
There is no threat to New York City, but the NYPD is still stepping up security in some places in response to the shootings. As officers patrol the streets, flags at City Hall are flying at half staff in honor of the people who were killed on Saturday.
(© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
