Kathy Hochul: Talking to Your ‘Neighbors Online’ Now Part of Firearm Background Check

 New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) used a Wednesday press conference to highlight new state gun controls and emphasized that talking to a would-be gun buyer’s “neighbors online” is now part of a background check.

Hochul’s comments to reporters and others gathered for the conference were wide-ranging, focusing broadly on New York’s Interstate Task Force on Illegal Guns.

She spoke of the ebb and flow of gun violence in New York and about disrupting the “iron pipeline,” through which illegal guns allegedly enter the state.

Toward the end of her comments she outlined some of New York’s newest gun controls, noting, “The threat of making mass harm is now a crime.”

She noted that state law now “bans the sale of AR-15s to those under 21,” adding, “I don’t think you should be able to purchase them at all, but we have court cases that say otherwise.”

Hochul highlighted the state’s post-Buffalo ban on the sale of body armor, noting there are no longer sales to law-abiding, non-law-enforcement citizens because the May 12, 2022, Buffalo attacker wore some type of body armor.

She then discussed social media, saying, “I’ve called upon and am working closely with our Attorney General to identify what’s going on in social media. And those questions are now part of our background checks. Just like in the old days you could talk to someone’s neighbor, now you can talk to their neighbors online to find whether or not this person has been espousing philosophies that indicate they have been radicalized.”