New York governor proposes strictest assault weapons ban

(REUTERS) - New York Governor Andrew Cuomo pledged to enact the strictest assault weapons ban in the United States (US) and outlaw all high-capacity magazines in one of the first state-level reactions to the massacre of school children in Connecticut.

"Gun violence has been on a rampage as we know firsthand and we know painfully," Mr Cuomo said on Wednesday in his annual State of the State address, in which he committed New York to leading the country in enacting new gun control laws. "We must stop the madness, my friends. And in one word it's just enough. It has been enough."

In neighbouring Connecticut, Governor Dannel Malloy in his State of the State address urged US lawmakers to tighten federal gun control measures in response to the shooting of 20 children and six adults at Connecticut's Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec 14.

"As long as weapons continue to travel up and down (interstate highway) I-95, what is available for sale in Florida or Virginia can have devastating consequences here in Connecticut," said Mr Malloy, who paused and fought back tears, his voice cracking, when discussing the tragedy at Sandy Hook.