City to issue warnings to people applying for gun licenses

Would-be gun owners beware — the city will soon be issuing warnings that getting a firearm could be dangerous.

The City Council voted Tuesday to require the NYPD to give out warnings to people applying for gun licenses and permits about the risks of firearm ownership, including higher suicide and accident rates.

“A majority of Americans believe that having a gun in the home makes them safer,” Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito said at City Hall Tuesday.

“As numerous studies have conclusively demonstrated, the opposite is true. The risk of suicide is higher in homes with guns. The risk of homicide is higher in homes where an abusive partner owns a gun. And occupants are significantly more likely to die from accidental gunshot injuries in homes with a gun.”

The plan is modeled after the surgeon general’s warning required on cigarettes.

Mark-Viverito said the goal is to “do to firearm ownership what cigarette warnings have done to tobacco consumption, by igniting a national movement to educate the public.”