BILL NUMBER: S7828

SPONSOR: SAVINO
 
TITLE OF BILL:  An act to amend the state finance law, in relation to
establishing the gun research safety fund; and making an appropriation
therefor

 
PURPOSE OF BILL:

Establishes the gun safety research fund

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 adds a new section to the state finance law which establishes
the "gun research safety fund." It also states that the funds shall be
expended to the department of health and the state university of New
York for gun research safety. This money will be under the custody of
the state comptroller. Section 2 states that the commissioner of health
and the chancellor of the state university of New York will establish
the criteria for eligibility for grants under the fund. Section 3 appro-
priates $10,000,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary to the gun
              

research safety fund. Section 4 establishes the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Gun violence killed 33,636 Americans in the year 2013, which is compara-
ble to the 33,804 Americans killed by motor vehicles in 2013.  However,
the funding provided by Congress to research prevention for these deaths
is far from comparable. In fiscal year 2015 congress provided $170
million for injury prevention and control to the CDC, which includes car
accidents. Additionally the National Highway Traffic Safety Adminis-
tration received $830 million in 2015 devoted to vehicle and traffic
safety research and grants.In 2013, Congress has provided no money to
the CDC to fund research for gun safety. The National Institutes of
Health and Department of Justice have commissioned around $5 million in
gun violence related research. This disparity shows a complete disregard
on the part of the United States Congress to end gun violence which is
plaguing this country. Congress has not funded research into gun
violence since 1996, essentially stopping the country's leading experts
on public health from finding solutions to ending the gun problem.
Today, gun violence has become a major threat to Americans. The public
health threat from guns does not just come from mass shooting which are
covered heavily by the media, but also from suicides, domestic violence
and accidental deaths.The Gun Research Safety Fund along with the appro-
priation would bring New York to the forefront of this issue and would
work to find solutions to a problem which leads to the death of thou-
sands of Americans every year. Our federal legislators have failed to
provide funds in order to research this issue which is plaguing our
nation. Ultimately the goal of this legislation is to give the State of
New York the resources to find a solution to curb deaths by gun violence
in this country.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

(2015 - 2016) referred to ways and means
(2017 - 2018) New Senate Bill

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:

$10,000,000 or so much thereof as may be necessary

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately