Senate Takes Action on Gun Violence Prevention

On June 2, the Senate Democratic Majority is passing legislation to strengthen gun safety measures and ensure deadly weapons stay out of the wrong hands. The proposed legislation will update the criminal code to make the threat of mass harm a crime; require microstamping of ammunition; strengthen measures to prevent those with criminal backgrounds from obtaining guns and ammo; allow health care providers to file extreme risk protection orders, and strengthen regulations for high-capacity ammo, feeding devices, and body armor. It would also more broadly define the term “firearm.” Less than halfway through 2022, the United States has already endured over 200 mass shootings, with guns ranking as the number one cause of death among kids and teens. This public health crisis stands alone as one that could help be prevented with effective leadership. Gun violence rips through the fabric of every American community, and puts all citizens at unnecessary, increased levels of danger. The New York Senate Majority is building on its strong record of gun safety by advancing responsible and effective firearm regulations to end these avoidable tragedies. Senate Majority Leader StewartCousins said, “Our nation has been brought to a moment of reckoning due to weapons of war that have been too easily accessed by those seeking to kill. These weapons have made places in our communities like schools, grocery stores, houses of worship, and concerts, places of carnage. In these devastating times in New York and across the nation, we have worked with Governor Hochul, Speaker Heastie, and members of the Democratic Legislature to step up and send a message that this path of gun violence is unacceptable, and we need real change.” The legislation being passed by the Senate Majority includes: •Permit to Purchase a Semi-Automatic Rifle: This bill, S.9458, sponsored by Senator Kevin Thomas, would establish a permit to purchase or take possession of semiautomatic rifles without affecting currently-owned semi-automatic rifles. Permits are only available to people over the age of 21, and require a safety course and background checks. •Establishing New Crimes of Mass Harm: This bill, S89B, sponsored by Senator Todd Kaminsky establishes the crime of making a threat of mass harm and aggravated threat of mass harm. This legislation clearly defines the criminality of those threats.

• Act to Microstamp Ammunition: This bill, S4116A, sponsored by Senator Brad Hoylman, requires semiautomatic pistols manufactured or delivered to any licensed dealer in this state to be capable of microstamping ammunition.

•Strengthening Background Checks: This bill, S4970A, sponsored by Senator Brian Kavanagh, requires the creation and imposition of restrictive commercial practices and stringent recordkeeping and reporting to prevent gun and ammunition sales to individuals with a criminal record. Additionally, the bill requires firearms recovered by law enforcement to be reported to the criminal gun clearinghouse within 24 hours.

Senate Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins. Editorial credit: lev radin / Shutterstock.com

•Bolstering Extreme Risk Protection Orders: This bill, S9113A, sponsored by

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DACA Ten Years Later

BY JR HOLGUIN

This June 15 will be ten years since then-president Barack Obama held a press conference in the Rose Garden at the White House to announce the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative. DACA protects children brought to the U.S. unlawfully from deportation and gives them work authorization. "These are young people who study in our schools; they play in our neighborhoods; they are friends with our kids. They pledge allegiance to our flag," Obama said in a speech that June of 2012. "They are Americans in their heart, in their minds, in every single way but one: On paper." Obama clarified that this was temporary, and Congress needed to pass the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act because "these kids deserve to plan their lives in more than two-year increments." But a decade later, since that speech, much has yet to change for DREAMers. The DREAM Act would protect the children referred to as DREAMers from deportation and have a pathway to citizenship. Since its introduction in 2001 by Congress, the DREAM Act has had as many as eleven iterations, and all have failed to garner the necessary votes to pass. Throughout all this time, the more than 800,000 DACA recipients, who average the age of 26, contribute $9.4 billion in taxes yearly. Own and pay home mortgages. They have graduated high school and pursued higher education in college. Many DREAMers have secured jobs that are beneficial and essential to the country. DREAMers in the workforce include healthcare workers, educators, and thousands working in the food supply chain. Despite their enormous contribution to this country, DREAMers continue to be only that, dreamers. Things turned for the worse for DREAMers when Donald Trump was president. The Trump administration tried to terminate DACA but was unsuccessful. The administration planned to block any new DACA request but was met with federal lawsuits by DACA recipients and others who challenged the lawfulness of the repeal. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had not provided adequate reasons or followed appropriate processes in rescinding the policy. Soon after this ruling, Chad Wolf, then-DHS Acting Secretary, issued a memorandum in which he announced immediate changes to DACA policy while considering its future. Significant changes included "no new initial requests for DACA should be accepted" and "renewals of deferred action and the accompanying work authorization should be granted for oneyear, rather than two-year, periods." A few years later, a federal district court removed the Wolf memorandum and directed DHS to reinstate the original DACA policy. On his first day in office, January 20, 2021, President Biden issued a memorandum to the Secretary of DHS and the U.S. Attorney General to "take all actions he deems appropriate, consistent with applicable law, to preserve and fortify DACA." Then, in July of that same year, district court Judge Andrew Hanen of the Southern District of Texas dictated that DACA was illegal and "created in violation of the law." Canceling Bidens's order, he blocked the government from accepting new applications to the program. Yet, immigrants currently protected by the program get to keep their status and can continue to renew while the case goes through the appeals process. This July, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals will consider Texas' lawsuit challenging DACA, and the Biden administration will attempt to rescue the program and its recipients. It is dispiriting that despite the evident tried-and-true results DACA has had on this country, DREAMers are still living with uncertainty and have no clear path to citizenship. It has been ten years since Obama and his administration took steps to "lift the shadow of deportation from these young people." This country cannot allow another decade to pass while dreamers give and get nothing in return. Congress must act now. l

Editorial credit: lev radin / Shutterstock.com Gun Violence Prevention/ continued from page 5

Senator James Skoufis, authorizes certain health care providers to apply for an extreme risk protection order against a patient. The bill also requires police and district attorneys to apply for an extreme risk protection order if there is probable cause that a person poses a threat. •Penalizing Large Capacity Ammo and Feeding Devices: This bill, S9229A, sponsored by Senator Brad Hoylman adjusts the definition of large capacity ammunition feeding device for purposes of the offense of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree; and repeals section 265.36 of the penal law. • Act to Regulate Body Armor: This bill, S9407B, sponsored by Senator Brian Kavanagh, prohibits the unlawful purchase and the unlawful sale or delivery of a body vest.

• Improving the Definition of Firearm: This bill, S9456, sponsored by Senator Luis Sepulveda adds to the definition of a firearm; provides that the term firearm shall also include any other weapon that is not otherwise defined containing any component that provides housing or a structure designed to hold or integrate any fire control component that is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by action of explosive.

• Reporting Hateful Social Media: This bill, S.4511A, sponsored by Senator Anna Kaplan, requires social media networks to provide and maintain mechanisms for reporting hateful conduct on their platform.

•Task Force on Social Media and Violent Extremism: This bill, S.9465, Sponsored by Senator Jamaal Bailey, creates a new Task Force on Social Media and Violent Extremism in the Attorney General's office to study and investigate the role of social media companies in promoting and facilitating violent extremism and domestic terrorism online.l

No, Latinos Don’t Actually Have Less Heart Disease – A New Large Study Refutes the Longstanding ‘Latino Paradox’

BY OLVEEN CARRASQUILLO THE CONVERSATION

Latinos may have higher rates of heart disease than previously thought, refuting a well-accepted idea known as the “Latino paradox,” according to a new study that I was involved in. The crux of the Latino paradox is as follows: A broad body of research shows that Latinos have higher rates of diabetes, obesity and uncontrolled blood pressure and cholesterol levels than non-Hispanic white people. So naturally, it would follow that Latino people should also have higher levels of cardiovascular disease. But for the past 30 years, a wide body of studies has found the opposite: Despite greater risk factors for heart disease, Latinos have lower mortality from rates of heart disease than non-Latino people. We found, however, that both Latino men and women have significantly higher rates of heart disease than non-Hispanic whites. In fact, for men we found rates of heart disease that were even slightly higher than among Black people, a group with the highest rates of heart disease. We found that 9.2% of Latinos had a diagnosis of heart disease, compared with 8.1% among Black people and 7.6% among non-Hispanic white men. To do the analysis, we used data from the All of Us research program, which seeks to enroll at least 1 million people from diverse backgrounds over the next few years. We examined medical record data from the more than 200,000 people who have already signed up for the program, including over 40,000 Latinos. Going into the study, we assumed that we would find evidence in support of the Latino paradox. Prior data on the paradox was based mostly on mortality records or self-reporting, both of which have inherent limitations. For example, without an autopsy, it is often hard to know for certain what led to a person’s death. People also may not be aware that they had heart disease, especially if they have not seen a doctor in a long time. Instead, our work looked at medical records and examined diagnoses of heart disease as determined by a physician during health care visits. We think this is a novel approach, as it uses more robust data to examine this issue.

Why it matters The widely accepted “Latino paradox” has been studied extensively. And until now, most studies have supported it, though none have found a concrete explanation for it. Medical and public health students are often taught about it as an unexplained phenomenon. But our study, using the largest research cohort of Latinos in the United States, seems to refute the paradox. The implications are critical because they suggest that like all groups, Latinos still need to take care of themselves by eating healthily, exercising regularly, watching their weight, avoiding smoking and getting regular check-ups. Those with diabetes, hypertension or cholesterol, need to make sure those conditions are well-controlled. These seemingly straightforward messages are the ones that doctors have been telling all of their patients for decades. Yet this study makes it clear that Latinos don’t get a free pass when it comes to continued on page 8

VACCINES BRING US CLOSER

Vaccination protects you from getting very sick from COVID-19.