Roc Against Gun Violence wants local code of conduct for gun dealers

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – A group trying to reduce gun violence in Rochester wants a code of conduct for gun dealers.

But when they gathered on Jefferson Avenue Tuesday morning, our attention was drawn to a little girl in her mother’s arms.

“You made the news,” joked coalition member Jacqueline Griffin to the little girl as our camera focused on her.

The little girl was in amongst the Roc Against Gun Violence Coalition when it released a 12-point solution plan to try to reduce the number of people shot and killed in the city.

Point 10 asks for a law requiring people to report lost or stolen guns. That law already exists in the state.
It also calls for a code of conduct for gun dealers in Monroe County.

City Councilman Willie Lightfoot, who started the coalition, drafted a letter for the mayor, county executive and town supervisors.

“I’m asking them to adopt a gun dealers code of conduct,” Lightfoot said.

I asked Lightfoot about the gun dealers.

Berkeley Brean, News10NBC: “Is there something they’re not doing now that you want them to do?”
Willie Lightfoot, Roc Against Gun Violence Coalition: “Absolutely. I think we can have tougher oversight over our gun dealers, first and foremost.”

Gun dealers in New York have to have a federal firearms license and face some of the strictest gun laws in the country. New York has 39 requirements that all gun dealers need to follow and compliance has to be filed every year with the state police.

The coalition wants the city’s gun trace data report unredacted. In June, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives blacked out the parts of the report that list the gun dealers tied to guns recovered by RPD.

Six years ago, 16 people were killed by a gun in Rochester. Last year it was 63. So far this year, it’s 36.

Brean: “Willie, there’s a little child behind you.”
Lightfoot: “Yes.”
Brean: “What kind of city do you want that child to grow up in?”
Lightfoot: “I want that child to grow up in a city where right across the street from us is ABC Head Start, where kids can play, where she can play and enjoy herself safely. And have the best quality of life we can make for her. That is our duty. That is our quest. And that is our responsibility to our babies.”