Khaleel Anderson, D-Far Rockaway, is pictured during a public engagement in March.

A group of 49 Assembly Democrats are trying again to pass legislation that would allow penalties for those who don’t safely store their firearms in the presence of a minor.

The Assembly passed Francesco’s Law in 2025, but the bill died in the state Senate. The Assembly passed the 2026 version of the bill (A.1962) recently and sent the bill to the state Senate again for consideration. The Assembly vote was 88-47, largely along party lines, with Assemblyman Andrew Molitor, R-Westfield, and Assemblyman Joe Sempolinski, R-Canisteo, voting against the measure. “Francesco didn’t have the opportunity to live to the age of 18 and as it’s so painful that we even have to be here to pass this particular piece of legislation just as we did last year in his memory,” said Assemblyman Khaleel Anderson, D-Far Rockaway. ” I’m reminded that more than half of gun owners do not practice safe storage and it’s important that we know that states with strong safe storage laws a 12% reduction in youth firearm suicides. Gun suicides rates have been increasing among young people and so with this particular piece of legislation I’m sure that we can bring New York to the gold standard. I think that this piece of legislation accomplishes that end in regard to supporting those efforts.”

Anderson’s bill amends the state Penal Law to add a section making it a Class A misdemeanor for failure to safely store rifles, shotguns or firearms when accessible by a minor or prohibited person. It also requires a person to receive safe storage materials when the person violates the state’s safe firearm storage laws and requires data to be collected related to injuries or deaths of minors resulting from failure to safely store a firearm, rifle, or shotgun.

Francesco’s Law actually lost five votes from its 2025 Assembly passage. The legislation has been changed from the 2025 version by removing several proposed offenses and then adding the reporting requirements.

Assemblyman Joe Angelino, R-Binghamton, was among the Republicans who spoke against Francesco’s Law on the Assembly floor. He repeated his opposition from the 2025 vote, saying there are many practical uses of firearms where they can’t be safely stored, largely by farmers he said typically keep long guns in their barns or tractors in order to ward off predators attacking livestock. He also noted last week’s shooting in which a man previously convicted of firing a gun at police shot at motorists on a busy road outside Boston, seriously wounding two drivers before a state trooper returned fire with a Marine veteran who pulled over to help drivers who were in harm’s way during the attack. The Marine veteran told investigators he had been driving southbound when he saw cars turning around and heard gunfire. A former firearms instructor, he retrieved his pistol from a safe in his backseat and — after the gunman got closer — fired eight rounds, according to a criminal complaint.

“I’ll say just a couple of days ago in Massachusetts, one of the states that is known for strict gun regulations, did have a self-defense issue with a person who was in public shooting people and killing them,” Angelino said, noting the time it took for the Marine veteran to ready himself to respond. “A person who stopped it had to go to the trunk of his car and get his weapon out of there because he wasn’t allowed to carry it and. After getting it out he had to go to the separate location to get the ammunition and then he stopped somebody in the act.”