NY steps up policing at schools, mulls raising age limit to buy guns

In the wake of the Texas school massacre earlier this week, New York State Police has increased its visibility at schools across the state, while authorities were also considering raising the age limit to buy guns.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul convened an emergency meeting of the school safety improvement team and directed New York State Police to enhance visibility at schools out of an abundance of caution, Xinhua news agency quoted an official statement as saying.

Included are check-ins at schools to be conducted by both uniform and plainclothes staff.

The temporary effort would last around one month until the end of the current school year, according to the statement.

Hochul also made a proposal to raise the minimum age to purchase AR-15 rifles to 21 years old from the current floor of 18.

"How does an 18-year-old purchase an AR-15 in the state of New York, state of Texas? That person's not old enough to buy a legal drink. I want to work with the legislature to change that. I want it to be 21. I think that's just common sense," the Governor said.

She is also pushing for the passing of two bills on micro-stamping of semiautomatic pistols manufactured or delivered to licensed dealers in New York and reporting protocols of guns recovered in crimes within 24 hours of their discovery.

Though gun control in New York is among the toughest in the US, it is threatened by inflows of arms from other states.

A gunman aged 18 killed 10 residents and wounded three others in Buffalo, New York, on May 14, while the perpetrator of the Texas school shooting was also 18-years-old.

Inside a fourth grade classroom at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, Salvador Ramos shot and killed 19 students and two teachers on Tuesday.

Ramos, a local high school student who shared his plan on Facebook minutes before the attack, was killed by a Border Patrol officer at the scene.

--IANS

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