ROCKLAND COUNTY, N.Y. (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) — The Rockland County legislature unanimously approved a law that will require warning labels to be posted anywhere that firearms are purchased in the county, an attempt to curb gun violence in the area.
“Gun violence eclipsed car accidents as the number one killer of children in the United States,” County Legislator Beth Davidson, representing Clarkstown and Nyack, told 1010 WINS/WCBS 880. “Gun violence isn’t happening somewhere else. It’s happening here in Rockland County.”
According to statistics out of the Center for Gun Violence at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 48,117 people died by firearms in 2022, equaling one death every 11 minutes. Nearly 27,000 of those died by suicide.
The labels will include the number to the Suicide Prevention Hotline along with a warning that access to a guns in the home significantly increases the risk of suicide, homicide and death during domestic disputes. It will also note the increased risk of accidental deaths, especially among children.
“A child whom I used to babysit for. I found out a few years after I had last babysat for him that he was killed in his home, by a friend, with a gun that was owned by someone in the home,” Davidson recounted, citing the tragedy as a motivator for her to pass the law.
Earlier this summer, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy declared gun violence a public health crisis, highlighting the fact that over half of Americans or their family members have experienced a gun-related injury in their lives.
“Firearm violence is an urgent public health crisis that has led to loss of life, unimaginable pain, and profound grief for far too many Americans,” Murthy said. “We don’t have to continue down this path, and we don’t have to subject our children to the ongoing horror of firearm violence in America.”
The law joins similar measures passed in Westchester and Albany counties.
“This law is a basic, common-sense safety measure, and I’m proud that Rockland County is tackling gun violence as a public health issue,” Chairman Jay Hood, cosponsor of the law, said. “Injuries and deaths caused by firearms are preventable—and yes, if one person struggling with mental illness, one child, one first responder is saved by this law, we have done our jobs as leaders. I hope the county executive will sign it without delay.”
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or chat live at 988lifeline.org.