New York Governor Signs ‘Francesco’s Law’ and an Ammo Check Expansion: Two More Rules for Law-Abiding New Yorkers, Nothing for the Criminals

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

ROCHESTER, NY — Gov. Kathy Hochul signed two more gun bills this week, including “Francesco’s Law,” a secure storage mandate that requires New York gun owners to keep firearms in a locked container when they are not in use and sets penalties when a child or an unlicensed person gets to an unsecured gun.

Hochul announced the signings at the New Yorkers Against Gun Violence annual benefit dinner, as reported by WROC. The dinner fell on the fifth anniversary of the death of Francesco, a 17-year-old who died by suicide after accessing an unsecured shotgun. The storage bill carries his name, and a foundation, Francesco’s Foundation, has been set up in his memory.

The second bill expands background checks on ammunition purchases. Under it, anyone legally prohibited from owning a rifle or shotgun may not buy ammunition, and the ban extends to people under temporary or extreme risk protection orders, according to WROC’s account. Hochul’s words at the dinner: “Today, I’m proud to make our nation-leading laws even stronger to keep guns and ammunition out of the wrong hands and make our children and communities safer.”

NRA-ILA called the bills what they are: “political grandstanding.” New Yorkers consistently rank public safety as a top issue, NRA-ILA noted, “and it isn’t because of the absence of gun laws in New York.” The group pointed instead at the governor’s “catch-and-release criminal justice system,” which it says “has created a revolving door that has made the streets of New York nearly unwalkable,” and called on Hochul and her legislative allies “to target actual criminals for a change.”

I agree with every word of that. Hochul herself calls New York’s gun laws “nation-leading,” and the state still cannot deliver the public safety its residents keep asking for. If the laws were the answer, New York would already have it. Adding two more does nothing but widen the gap between the people who follow the rules and the people who were never going to.

Secure storage is a mindset issue, and I have pushed it for years. If there are kids in the house, or anyone who should not have access, the gun that is not on your body belongs in a locked container, and that was true before the governor signed anything. A storage statute does not change that calculation for responsible owners. It only creates a criminal penalty that lands on the law-abiding after the fact, while the people stealing guns and carrying them illegally were never going to buy a safe.

The ammunition bill builds on a system NRA-ILA calls “dubious,” and the history backs that up. New York runs its ammo checks through the State Police, not the FBI. The CCIA, in effect since September 2023, requires a check on every ammunition buyer, a $2.50 fee per check, and a State Police database of licenses and ammo sales records. Any hit on a disqualifying record holds the sale until State Police review it, and NRA-ILA says the rollout has been marked by delays and false denials, with buyers waiting hours or days to walk out with a box of ammunition. The state tried this once before. The 2013 SAFE Act’s ammo check was suspended by officials who considered it infeasible, so New York revived a system it had already abandoned, and the second version still misfires.

More from USA Carry:

• North Dakota Governor Signs Major Gun Law: No More Duty to Inform, Public Gathering Carry Downgraded to $100 Ticket, and Campus Firearms Approved
• Canik TP9 Elite SC 9mm: Field Test Review
• Check-In and Flying With Your Guns & Ammo | Step by Step
• NRA Reveals It Has Spent Over $3 Million Fighting California’s Ammo Laws as Ammunition Depot Launches Checkout Donations to Fund the Battle
• Don’t Worry About Ballistics – Concealed Carry With What You Like

The numbers make NRA-ILA’s case. In the first month, the group says, State Police processed 29,464 ammo checks, approved 29,037, and denied 161, about 0.55 percent. That is 99.5 percent of checks acting as friction on buyers who were going to pass anyway, with the fee, the delays, and the dealer-only shipping requirement landing on them. A denial does not prove a crime was prevented either; a prohibited person turned away at the counter can still buy ammunition privately or out of state. The new bill widens the net. According to NRA-ILA, prior law screened ammo buyers only against federal prohibitors under 18 U.S.C. 922(g), not New York-specific ones such as a red flag order or a “serious offense” conviction under Penal Law 265.00(17). The bill aligns the ammo screen with the gun screen, which means more categories of people denied, more records to check against, and more chances for false hits in a system that already struggles. The sponsor’s pitch was that anyone who fails a firearm check has no need for ammunition. The licensed New Yorkers who pass every time are the ones who will pay for that logic at the counter.

I will continue tracking both laws as the enrolled text, effective dates, and penalty schedule are published, and report what the statutes actually say.

Read the original story: New York Governor Signs ‘Francesco’s Law’ and an Ammo Check Expansion: Two More Rules for Law-Abiding New Yorkers, Nothing for the Criminals