Gun Control Fail: ‘Gun Violence’ Costs New York over $5.6 Billion Each Year

New York has an “assault weapons” ban, a “high capacity” magazine ban, universal background checks, and “gun violence” costs of over $5.6 billion a year.

In other words, gun control is not working in New York, just as it has not worked in Chicago or Baltimore.

The annual cost of “gun violence” was put forth via a study by Gabby Giffords’ gun control group and published by New York Daily News.

Kelly Drane is an associate of Giffords’ gun control group and she commented on NY’s raging gun violence, saying, “The costs are massive—the human and moral costs and also the fiscal costs we share as taxpayers and society at large. New York State is actually a national leader (in gun control), but even so, the cost of gun violence, even in one of our safest states, is enormous.”

Following the heinous December 14, 2012, attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School, NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) pushed through a gun control package called the SAFE Act. It contained the “assault weapons” ban, “high capacity” magazine ban, expanded background checks, registration database, and more. Cuomo signed it into law in January 2013.

On March 3, 2015, Breitbart News reported that New York City witnessed a sharp increase in shootings and murders during the first two months of 2015, when compared to the first two months of 2014.  NY1 reported the increase in shootings was “20 percent” and the increase in murders was “20 percent” as well. Month’s later, on September 7, 2015, four shootings and a stabbing marred  Brooklyn’s J’Ouvert festival and Cuomo claimed the failure was not with his gun control but with a lack of gun control in southern states.

Now Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a central voice in the gun control lobby, shows that Cuomo’s gun control is not working. Of course, they do not come right out and say that gun control is failing. Rather, they suggest gun control must be complimented by laws in other areas in order to work.

For example, Robin Lloyd, director of government affairs for Giffords’ gun control group, said, “Part of the story we want to tell is that even with the strong gun laws (in New York), there’s still other things that can be done to address the gun violence and the impacts it has.”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.