Andrew M. Cuomo, pushing New York to become the first state to enact major new gun laws in the wake of the massacre in Newtown, Conn., plans on Wednesday to propose one of the country’s most restrictive bans on assault weapons. New York already has some of the toughest gun laws in the nation, and is one of only seven states with an assault-weapons ban. Since that interview, Mr. Cuomo has not mentioned the idea, and his aides have acknowledged that it would be impractical. “I think what the nation is saying now after Connecticut, what people in New York are saying is ‘Do something, please,’ ” Mr. Cuomo told reporters recently. Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, is eager to be among the first governors to sign new gun laws in the aftermath of the Dec. 14 school shooting in Newtown, Conn., and a Christmas Eve shooting in Webster, N.Y. Currently, gun licenses in New York state are "generally valid until revoked," except in New York City where they must be renewed every three years, and in suburban Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties, where they must be renewed every five years, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. On Saturday, after the Senate Republicans called for stiffening penalties for violations of existing gun laws, but not tightening the assault weapons ban, Mr. Cuomo’s spokesman said the Republican proposal “insults the common sense of New Yorkers.” 
 
 Gun rights advocates argue that Mr. Cuomo is wrong to focus his attention on assault weapons; of 769 homicides in New York State in 2011, only five were committed with rifles of any kind, according to the State Division of Criminal Justice Services. "The solution is not more control of guns," said Tom King, president of the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association.
– New York's Democrat governor is aiming to make some of the country's toughest gun laws even tougher. In his State of the State address today, Andrew Cuomo is expected to outline gun control plans including new restrictions on assault weapons, lower limits on the capacity of magazines, and a requirement for gun permits to be renewed every five years, the New York Times reports. New York already bans some assault weapons but Cuomo says the law introduced after the 1999 Columbine shooting has "more holes than Swiss cheese." Cuomo has been pushing for fresh gun control measures since the Sandy Hook school shooting and negotiations with legislative leaders continued until late last night, the Wall Street Journal reports. Gun rights advocates—alarmed by Cuomo's suggestion in a radio interview that "confiscation could be an option" for assault weapons—are expected to push back hard against the move, and Republican leaders have demanded that the plan include stiffer penalties for crimes committed with illegal weapons.