Gov. Andrew Cuomo, along with the governors of Connecticut and Maryland, penned a letter to the U.S. Senate on Wednesday urging the chamber to approve legislative amendments that would require more background checks on gun sales.
Cuomo, Daniel Malloy of Connecticut and Martin O’Malley of Maryland, who are all Democrats, wrote in the letter that the proposed amendment to the “Safe Communities, Sade Schools Act of 2013,” fails to mandate universal background checks. But it would still help to make communities safer, the chiefs argued.
“While this proposal falls short of the universal background checks that are truly needed to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous individuals, we believe the Senate must take the first step to address gun violence in our communities and honor the victims,” they wrote.
“In our own states, we’ve enacted legislation since the mass shootings in Aurora and Newtown to combat gun violence and make our communities safer while respecting everyone’s Second Amendment rights,” they continued. “But gun violence respects no borders, and our states’ laws alone are insufficient to systemically address gun violence on a national basis.”
Cuomo has been critical of gun-law proposals on the federal level but has argued that federal laws are imperative to keep guns from crossing state lines.
Here’s the full letter:
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