N.Y. Gov. Hochul calls for ‘national response’ to tighten gun laws after racist Buffalo massacre

Gov. Hochul said Monday that the racist shooting of Black shoppers at a Buffalo supermarket over the weekend showed the need for national firearm reform, pointing to the perpetrator’s suspected purchase of a high-capacity magazine in Pennsylvania.

Hochul said the 18-year-old suspect, Payton Gendron of Conklin, N.Y., purchased the gun he used for the hate-fueled massacre within state limits, but made the 10-mile trek south into Pennsylvania to enhance the weapon’s killing capabilities.

“This is what is such a huge problem for us, with the whole specter of gun violence in our streets from New York City all the way to Rochester and Buffalo, ” Hochul told WKSE-FM. “People can buy either guns or magazines that have higher capacity in other states.”

“We need a national response to this,” Hochul, a Buffalo-born Democrat, added. “Otherwise, we are just vulnerable to the laws in other states.”

On Saturday afternoon, the shooter killed 10 people and wounded three as he sprayed bullets at a Tops Friendly Market parking lot and then stormed through the store, according to authorities.

Gendron penned a repugnant 180-page screed — packed with racist ravings — detailing his plans to carry out the attack down to the smallest detail. The document landed online.

In a Monday morning appearance on WPIX, Hochul said that it remained unclear when Gendron’s document was posted, but that it “wasn’t out there for a long time.”

The governor has condemned social media platforms as “instruments of evil.” The shooter also livestreamed the shooting on Twitch, a video platform.

On Monday, Hochul described the attack as “domestic terrorism,” and said hate speech is circulating on TV and even in Congress.

“The white supremacists of the past wore hoods and rode on horses — you couldn’t tell who they are,” Hochul told WPIX on Monday.

“Now we can’t tell who they are because they’re hiding under the mask of the internet,” Hochul said. “Wee have to be much more aggressive in holding companies that provide these platforms responsible.”

Gendron’s diatribe said he picked the Tops store because of its location in a majority Black neighborhood on the east side of Buffalo, New York’s second-largest city.

All but two of the victims were Black, and the racist attack left the deeply segregated city reeling.

The Tops store closed after the shooting, creating an instate food desert in the high-poverty area, Hochul said in her Monday morning media blitz. The governor said Uber and Lyft will offer free rides to help residents get to stores.

Hochul, who has resided for years near downtown Buffalo, said she lives about 10 minutes from the site of the bloody rampage.

“There is a raw pain out in this community,” Hochul told NY1, adding that locals need “a collective hug,” but also action.

And she repeatedly linked the attack to lenient out-of-state gun laws, noting that she had underscored the need for a national crackdown during a conversation with President Biden, who is expected to visit Buffalo on Tuesday.

“As I spoke with President Biden, when he called to offer help, I said, ‘Please come to Buffalo,’ and he is,” Hochul told NY1. “But I also said, ‘We need a national response.’”