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Sen. Schumer said it’s “downright dangerous that the president’s budget would seek to undermine the gun background check system.”
By Michael V. Cusenza
Two senior New York pols this weekend blasted President Donald Trump for a Fiscal Year 2019 budget proposal that they said would cripple the gun background check system that is already on the books.
According to Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the recently released White House fiscal plan makes millions of dollars in cuts to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which is used by law enforcement to probe records on individuals who may be prohibited from purchasing firearms.
Trump’s budget slashes NICS by 16 percent, hitting the National Criminal Records History Improvement Program and the NICS Act Record Improvement Program especially hard.
“In the midst of the national tragedy in Parkland, Fla., and on the heels of now 30 mass shootings that have taken place this year alone, it is downright dangerous that the president’s budget would seek to undermine the gun background check system,” Schumer said on Sunday. “No child should have to live in fear of mass shootings and no parent should have to worry about the fate of their child after school drop off in the morning. Rather than working to strengthen already lax gun safety laws, the White House is threatening to widen gaping holes in our protections by proposing to cut the NICS Background Check system by millions of dollars. While we are in dire need of an even stronger background check system in this country, like one that closes the Gun Show Loophole, the White House’s proposal would hurt one of the only firewalls we have in place to stop dangerous people from legally purchasing guns. President Trump: how can you seriously say that ‘no child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school’ when your team is proposing to dismantle the background check system? As the author of the 1993 Brady Bill, I give the American people my word that I will do everything in my power to fight these cuts and make sure the NICS Background Check System is fully funded so that it can continue to live up to its lifesaving purpose.”
Cuomo called the Trump budget proposal “as shocking as it is dangerous,” later positing that the “reckless measure would undermine the very safeguards that protect us and put the American people in harm’s way.”
In ripping the White House plan, Cuomo lauded the Empire State’s austere gun laws.
“In New York, we are doing the exact opposite. Following the Sandy Hook massacre, we actually did something and passed the strongest gun safety law in the nation. As of December 2017, 75,000 people deemed to be dangerously mentally ill by a licensed mental health professional have been added to a database to keep guns out of the wrong hands,” the governor noted. “This year, we are taking new steps to keep guns away from dangerous people by proposing to remove all firearms from those who commit domestic violence crimes. Instead of cutting funding for critical security measures, the President should follow our lead and advance common-sense gun safety legislation. The American people have waited far too long.”
