ALBANY — Several state lawmakers from the Capital Region said they will seek to tighten access to flare guns in the wake of a violent Fourth of July weekend in Albany that involved an historic home in the city’s Center Square neighborhood going up in flames.
State Sen. Patricia Fahy and Assembly members John T. McDonald III and Gabriella Romero said Wednesday that forthcoming bills would create new criminal offenses for selling flare guns to people under 21, and would make the use of flare guns as weapons illegal.
Over the weekend, Albany was hit by a spate of incidents that appeared to stem from a shootout between teenagers or young adults armed with a flare gun and a handgun. The scuffle required a Madison Avenue to be torn down and left several people with injuries, some critical, as pedestrians poured out of the massive fireworks event at the nearby Empire State Plaza…