New York”™s Gov. Kathy Hochul joined with Buffalo city officials and numerous others in condemning Saturday”™s shooting at a supermarket in that city in which 10 people were killed and at least three more wounded. Hochul, who is from Buffalo, in addition to condemning the shooting itself, blasted the use of social media to spread hate. She called for action to identify and deal with hate messages and pledged that New York state will be prepared to deal with a likely Supreme Court decision that would override existing local laws and allow people to carry concealed weapons.
The 18-year-old alleged shooter, identified as Peyton Gendron of Conklin, N.Y., is a self-proclaimed white supremacist who live-streamed his assault as he drove to the supermarket, got out of his vehicle and started shooting. Reports said that eight of the people he killed were black.
“We will continue to work at the federal, state, and local level with our community partners to help identify these (hate) messages as soon as they arise on social media,” Hochul said. “That is our best defense right now, as well as the legal system and the prosecution.”
Hochul said that on Tuesday, she will go ahead with previous plans and introduce a comprehensive gun regulation package to address loopholes that she says exist in current state laws.
“We are doing everything we can to ensure that our laws are tight, they’re ironclad, to ensure that our law enforcement have the resources they need,” Hochul said.
According to officials, Gendron used an assault type of rifle. He had live-streamed his actions on the social media platform Twitch.
“I’m angry. I’ve seen violence from guns on the Brooklyn subway, and now in the streets of Buffalo, it has to stop. It has to stop,” Hochul said.
