Assemblyman Steve Hawley (R,C,I-Batavia) today slammed the governor’s declaration of a “statewide disaster emergency” regarding gun violence in the state. Within the governor’s executive order, he unilaterally suspends numerous laws while allocating $138.7 million toward programs he believes will reduce gun violence.

​“This emergency declaration is yet another instance of the governor going above our heads in the Legislature to haphazardly expend funds aimed to try and solve the wrong root problem,” said Hawley. “The reason for the rise in crime as of late is no mystery, and until the governor admits bail reform was a failed experiment with deadly consequences, I fear the terrible violence in our communities will persist. Our constitutional freedom to own guns isn’t the problem that’s causing this violence, it’s the dangerous revolving-door the governor has created in our penal system that’s giving dangerous individuals more opportunities than ever to harm the innocent, or victims of their previous crimes.”

​Hawley for months has called for the rollback of bail reform laws, which limits a judge’s ability to use their discretion to issue bail to those they know to be dangerous. He argues that this law has created a revolving door for dangerous criminals, who have often been released back into the public after being arrested following the implementation of bail reform. These criminals often reoffend and cause further violence in the communities they’re released into.