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County Legislator Reacts To State Street Shooting

A Monroe County Legislator who represents the area where the State Street shooting happened on Sunday is calling for action by local lawmakers.  

29th District Legislator Ernest Flagler-Mitchell had already planned to renew his push for a bill that  would require gun owners to keep their weapons in safes or use trigger locks. But now he has additional motivation after the shooting that killed one person and injured seven others on Sunday.

Flagler-Mitchell's initial interest in the legislation was spurred in part by a shooting at a house party in the city last year that took the life of his cousin.

And while he feels his proposal is necessary, he says it will take more than a law to bring an end to a lot of this violence. 

"It’s hard to legislate morality, so we look at the different acts and different laws we put in place, we've got to have a real conversation on how we deal with guns getting into the wrong hands.”

Flagler-Mitchell says there is just too much gun violence out on the streets. 

"There are people out there, and they're not everybody, but there are people out there that do not value life and when you feel that you got to solve a problem with a gun, there's a problem, and that's where the community needs to step up and we need to get these folks off the street."

Flagler-Mitchell plans to talk more about his push for county legislation calling for tougher regulation of how guns are stored later this week.

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.