When I think of New York and guns, there are a lot of terms that come to mind. “Draconian,” for one.

After all, New York is one of the most gun-controlled states in the nation. It has extensive regulations regarding the buying and carrying of firearms.

The word “loophole” isn’t one I’d associate with the state, yet apparently, they have loopholes in their gun laws that desperately need to be closed.

Two hundred miles. That is how far a man from Conklin in upstate New York traveled before allegedly murdering 10 people and injuring three others at a supermarket Saturday, in what authorities say was a racially motivated attack in a predominantly Black section of Buffalo. Eleven of the victims were Black and two were white.

The suspect, 18, allegedly killed a cancer survivor, a retired police officer, a missionary who ran a food pantry and a deacon, to name a few, according to multiple reports.

…

People who are not in their right minds should not have access to weapons, Boyce added.

The Bushmaster XM-15 rifle used by the alleged suspect — with racial epithets emblazoned upon it — was legally purchased, according to multiple reports.

It was, however, illegally altered to hold more rounds, Gov. Hochul said during a Monday interview with NY1.

“We have the toughest gun laws in the nation, but people can so easily come from other states,” said Hochul. “The gun that was purchased in New York State was not capable of the massacre that occurred on Saturday. That was an execution-style massacre. What the perpetrator did was buy an enhanced magazine across the border in Pennsylvania, literally 10 minutes from his house, and added that to the gun.”

Hochul said she will do her best to close gun loopholes in New York, but there needs to be a national response since the weapons and magazines are flowing from out of state.

Look, what happened in Buffalo was tragic, but it wasn’t the product of people being able to buy guns. It was the result of hatred and downright evil. It was all kinds of things.

But let’s not pretend there are lapses in the gun law that, if closed, would have prevented this attack.

The killer had a magazine that would hold more rounds than allowed under New York law. The Parkland killer’s, however, would have met the standard just fine.

Yes, he was 18, and while it’s simple to latch onto that, how many mass shooters have we seen who were over the age of 21 throughout the years? And let’s remember that the Sandy Hook killer murdered his own mother to get a rifle to carry out his atrocity.

What this illustrates is that you can throw up barriers all you want, but you’re never going to prevent that level of evil. Instead, you infringe on the rights of ordinary Americans with absolutely no ill intent because you think that one of them, out of millions, might be a mass shooter.

It’s kind of insane.

If you’re interested in dealing with preventing mass shootings, maybe the first step isn’t to give the killers exactly what they want rather than trying to punish legions who did nothing wrong?