State lawmakers plan to reintroduce a bill next session that would require police to temporarily seize firearms visibly present when they respond to a domestic incident.

Victims of domestic abuse are 400% to 500% more likely to be killed at the hands of their abuser when they have access to a firearm, according to the National Institute of Health.

The Safe Homes Act of 2020 gives police in the state the option to temporarily take custody of visible firearms, or those found through a consensual, legal search, when they respond to a domestic dispute.

"Some police departments do it, some police departments don't, and we need to have uniform safety," state Sen. Pete Harckham told Spectrum News 1.

Harckham, a Democrat from Westchester County, sponsors legislation that would mandate all police temporarily confiscate weapons that are out in the open during a domestic call. 

It does not apply to weapons that are safely stored away or out of sight, and only applies to active incidents. Police will not be able to go to homes with a history of domestic incidents to seize weapons.

"This is not gun control, this is gun safety; and this is domestic safety," the senator said. "This is keeping the victims of domestic violence alive. We had two fatalities through domestic violence and firearms in my district in the last month. This is very real. This is very deadly and this is not a permanent seizure."

Police would be able to hold the weapons for at least five days and develop appropriate safety plans, such as restraining orders, before deciding to keep or returning them to their owner.

Gun rights advocates are against the proposal — arguing it infringes on a person's Second Amendment rights, and that it is unconstitutional to take away a person's firearms before they're convicted of a crime. 

Tom King, president of New York State’s Rifle & Pistol Association, pointed to language in the U.S. Constitution.

“‘No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law,’” he said. “That means a search warrant or an order from a judge to confiscate the firearms — and they're doing this without that.”

King remains skeptical about how long it would take police to return firearms to their rightful owner. He said about 100 New Yorkers who had their firearms confiscated under the state's expanded red flag laws have contacted the Rifle & Pistol Association within the last year seeking legal advice about how to get their legally owned weapons back.

The legal battle has cost some gun owners between $5,000 and $10,000, he said.

"They make a firearm owner hire a lawyer and go to court, and then go to state Supreme Court in order to get a judge to issue an order to get their guns back," King said. "The current red flag law says that the guns have to be returned ... I don't believe anything that these people say anymore."

Second Amendment rights advocates have started to question data that shows the presence of a firearm increases the risk of death during a domestic dispute, and the methods organizations like the National Institute of Health use to calculate statistics showing increased risk.

Carmen Cong has worked with survivors of domestic abuse across the state, including people whose partner used a firearm to intimidate them. 

"There's a lot of high emotion during a domestic dispute, and when there's already a power and control factor in the relationship, just statistically speaking, having a firearm in the home just makes that situation a little bit riskier," said Cong, director of the Family Justice Center at the Willow Domestic Violence Center of Greater Rochester.

She cited a Boston University study that shows rates of domestic violence homicide drop 14% when states make domestic violence offenders surrender their guns.

"It targets situations where there is documented, imminent risk," Cong said. "That's the difference between people who use guns responsibly and others that don't."

State lawmakers said they will reintroduce the bill after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld similar federal legislation this year, and are confident the law would withstand any legal challenges in New York.