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CityAndStateNY.com
May 23, 2022
Is there anything wrong with New York’s Red Flag Law?
By Sara Dorn
T
HE BUFFALO SHOOTING suspect who reportedly threatened a murder-suicide less than a year before he shot 13 people, killing 10, at a Tops supermarket on May 14 may have been prohibited from acquiring the firearm he used in the massacre if law enforcement had pursued the available protections under the state’s Red Flag Law. The law, which passed in 2019, said law enforcement, family members or school employees can file for an “extreme risk protection order” that would require a state Supreme Court judge to decide if there is probable cause that the person would be likely to seriously harm themself or another individual. Questions were raised about why the law wasn’t executed in the wake of the Buffalo shooting after officials revealed that 18-year-old Payton Gendron had made a “generalized threat” of violence in June 2021 while attending Susquehanna Valley High School in his hometown of Conk-
lin. According to The New York Times, citing a law enforcement source, Gendron responded to a school project about his post-graduation plans by stating he wanted to commit a murder-suicide. New York State Police confirmed they responded to the school on June 8 to investigate a “generalized threat” made by a 17-year-old student, who was then taken into custody and transported to the hospital for a mental health evaluation. The agency, which would not say whether Gendron was the student, citing privacy reasons, said in an email to City & State that it did not apply for an extreme risk protection order against the student and noted the threat was general in nature and did not target the school or anyone in particular. Months later, sometime earlier this year, Gendron purchased what was described by Gov. Kathy Hochul as an “AR-15-style” rifle from Vintage Firearms in Endicott. The store owner, Robert Donald, told NPR that Gendron’s background check showed nothing that would have prevented him
USMAN KHAN/AFP, SCOTT OLSON, KENT NISHIMURA/LOS ANGELES TIMES/GETTY IMAGES
The law could have prevented the accused Buffalo shooter from getting a weapon. It just wasn’t used by police.
