NEW YORK, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- A lawmaker of the U.S. state of New York is proposing a bill which would require social media and online search history checks before any gun licence approval or renewal, according to local media reports seen on Monday.
The bill, submitted by Democrat State Senator Kevin Parker on Nov. 14, would require a person applying for or renewing a gun licence "to consent to having his or her social media accounts and search engine history reviewed and investigated for certain posts and/or searches over a period of 1-3 years," the draft bill stated.
People would be forced to hand over their login details on Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram and provide access to search histories on Google, Yahoo and Bing, according to the bill.
Local media said the bill is intended to keep guns out of the hands of people who are potentially violent.
The bill is also regarded as a response to several mass shootings around the country in the past few years which involved gunmen who had posted messages of violence, racial slurs or threats on social media platforms, such as a Florida school shooting in February and another one in Texas in May.
The vote for the bill is not yet scheduled.
