Governor Kathy Hochul visited Buffalo City Hall on Thursday, February 5, to share more details of her proposals to tackle ghost guns in New York.
"These are homemade killing machines that you can assemble it with pieces without a background check. You can assemble it at your kitchen table. And I don't want these people to convert their homes into firearm factories," Hochul said.
Ghost guns are 3D-printed guns, which can be manufactured at home in less than an hour, according to Everytown for Gun Safety. These guns are untraceable and it can cost only a few hundred dollars to build an AR-15 or a Glock-style pistol.
Hochul first announced the proposals as part of her 2026 State of the State address. The legislative package includes requiring 3D printer manufacturers to install technology to prevent the printing of ghost guns, requiring gun manufacturers to design pistols that can't be modified using 3D-printed attachments into semi-automatic weapons, and mandating 3D printed guns be reported to a criminal gun database.
Additionally, proposed legislation would also make it a crime to intentionally have, sell or provide digital instructions to build a gun or its parts without a license.
"Just a few years ago, when I first came into office as Governor, everywhere was facing a real crisis of crime and violence, and the numbers were heading up exponentially, in a very frightening way," Hochul said.
Hochul says shootings statewide have fallen since she took office in 2021 and passed additional legislation and funding to tackle gun violence. She says she wants to tackle this "plastic pipeline" to continue to make New Yorker safer.
She was joined by Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan and officials from the Buffalo Police in her announcement.
