On Monday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “Wake Up America,” Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) stated that the Buffalo shooter should not have been able to purchase a firearm, but slipped through due to his mental health history not being reported and that “New York has among the harshest gun laws already. I don’t think changing the gun laws is going to change this. Changing our reporting system and following the laws that are already in place is usually the problem.”
Tenney said, “[T]he day-and-a-half that he was retained in a hospital setting to be evaluated for threats and mental health problems and then released. Why wasn’t that reported to the authorities under our NICS law so that would be evaluated when he — when the person who, looks like, lawfully sold him a gun, why didn’t they see that? That’s a law that we passed on the federal side. That’s a reporting problem. That’s something that wasn’t done by our hospitals, our schools, and others who should have been reporting these things, and this kid should have been denied access to a gun. New York has among the harshest gun laws already. I don’t think changing the gun laws is going to change this. Changing our reporting system and following the laws that are already in place is usually the problem.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett