Gov. Hochul signs trio of bills to make ghost guns illegal

Gov. Kathy Hochul signed three bills Thursday to make ghost guns illegal.

The governor says there have been criminals going to extreme lengths to possess illegal guns by using untraceable firearms that are often bought online and assembled at home.

"Now we're finally putting a stop to that," Hochul says. "We now finally have a bill that makes it a crime to sell the unfinished frame of receivers where people can put together guns in evading our law."

One of the bills was named the Scott J. Biegel Unfinished Receiver Act after a Dix Hills native who was killed in the Parkland, Florida, high school massacre.

Linda Schulman, Biegel's mother, says she knows nothing can bring her son back but believes he would be proud of the legislation.

"If it prevents one parent, one grandparent, one brother or one sister from feeling the loss I feel each and every day, I know Scott could be proud to know that his death was not in vain," Schulman says.

The bills will make it illegal to build untraceable guns, criminalize the sale of ghost guns and crack down on firearms that look like toy guns.

The measures also require all gunsmiths to serialize all firearms that are not covered by federal serialization law with the Division of State Police.

The Scott J. Beigel Unfinished Receiver Act was written and passed in the New York State Senate by Senator Anna M. Kaplan.