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What's changed in the two years since 5/14?

After the mass shooting at Tops on Buffalo's Jefferson Avenue in 2022, promises were made so it could never happen again.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — 2 On Your Side took a closer look into what has changed, and the promises that were made in the wake of the Tops mass shooting on Jefferson Avenue in 2022.

There has been some additional gun control measures passed by the state, and an attempt to further regulate body armor on the federal level.

In the aftermath of the shootings, Rep. Brian Higgins attempted to revive an old bill first introduced in 2019, three years prior to the massacre, that would prohibit the sale to most civilians any type of military grade or "enhanced" body armor.

He introduced his version as the Aaron Salter Junior Responsible Body Armor Possession Act, named after the armed security guard and retired police officer Aaron Salter. He was inside the store and engaged the shooter with his own weapon, which had no effect due to the protection the assailant was wearing.

Two years later, though, the bill has never made it out of committee.

Salter's sole surviving sibling is Cashell Durham. She says she still misses her brother, and that will never change.

"I'm still up and down," she said. "But I have the support. I happen to work for Kaleida, and I have great support from my Kaleida family."

On the state level, New York did pass a prohibition on the sale and possession of bulletproof vests to all but a select number of people engaged in certain professions. However, its ban doesn't prohibit the type of body armor worn by the gunman, known as a plate carrier (a vest, often made of ordinary fabric that holds hard armor plates designed to protect against rifle rounds).

New York also enhanced its Red Flag Law, raised the legal age to buy semi-automatic rifles, and required a license to have one, all as a result of what happened two years ago in Buffalo.

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