Legislators urge passage of microstamping bill

Following a June 16 shooting spree that began at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow and ended in two deaths, a pair of state legislators gathered with supporters there to promote new legislation aimed to improve gun identification.
  
State Sen. Eric Schneiderman (D-Manhattan/Bronx) and Assemblywoman Michelle Schimel (D-Greak Neck) made the case on June 19 for their microstamping bill, which requires that by Jan. 1, 2012, gun manufacturers equip all semiautomatic pistols with the technology to engrave microscopic markings in fired ammunition.
   
The legislators were joined last Saturday at NUMC by members of Long Island's law enforcement community and Malverne resident Steven McDonald, an NYPD detective who was injured by gun violence and paralyzed in 1986.
   
They urged Long Island's Senate Republicans to pass the bill, which fell two votes short of passing in the Senate in May: all seven of Long Island's GOP senators voted against the measure, which was passed in the Assembly, last month.
   
“The events of June [16] have made me even more determined to pass microstamping legislation in New York State,” Schimel said. “I am sad, sad for the police who lose so many brave officers to gun violence, sad for the mayors who attend the funerals of the victims, and sadder still for the victims and their families who hoped and trusted that their elected officials would do the right thing by the people.”
   
A bipartisan coalition of mayors, district attorneys, police officers and legislators from throughout New York State, including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly, did the same last Saturday morning on the steps of the capitol in Albany. Each speaker, citing the efficacy of microstamping technology in crime solving and reducing incidents of gun violence, urged state senators to vote in favor of the bill.