BUFFALO, N.Y. — Even with emotions still fresh from sentencing proceedings, family of the victims of the Buffalo Tops massacre and their attorneys put a focus on calling on the state Legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul to prioritize the passage and signing of legislation to expand New York's wrongful death statute.

Advocates call it the Grieving Families Act.

"The only recovery you have is what was the financial contribution of that person to your life. That's nonsense. Of course it's the grief, it's the nurture, it's the loss of companionship. It's all those things that mean so much to us as grandsons and as parents," attorney Terry Connors said.

The current law doesn't allow for claims of pain and suffering. The family members say it doesn't properly value many of their loved ones who were senior citizens and no longer working.

Raymond Whitfield said his mother's life shouldn't be devalued because she was a stay-at-home mom.

"When you marginalize and try to put a value on someone's life and you say one life is more valuable than the other because of an occupation, our mother was, she never had an occupation except to raise us as decent human beings. She did that exceedingly well," he said.

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The state Legislature passed the bill last year but the governor did not sign it into law, citing concerns about unintended economic impacts. Connors said it has slowed things down on his end.

"We anticipated that it would be a favorable review. It passed both houses in our Legislature. It was a bipartisan bill that went on the desk so we were hopeful and expected it to be passed. It slowed us down because there were certain aspects of that bill that we were going to incorporate in our civil litigation," he said.

Connors suggested the team is mostly prepared for litigation against the gun industry but is continuing to build its case against others, including potentially online, digital and social media platforms. He believes the shooter's own admission during sentencing of being influenced by those platforms was important.

"I wasn't expecting that. I was expecting some sort of a lame apology, but to hear that, it fits exactly into our theory so it helps us but we have to find how to put that into admissible form in our litigation and we'll do that."

The attorneys also pointed out the defense team said evidence from the criminal case should be released. High-profile civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump said that's key to the civil case.

Crump said there will never be justice for these families but civil litigation is about pursuing accountability and change.

"It was a lot of people who loaded that gun and we've got to hold all of them accountable. I mean, that's why we needed that legislation to be signed and that's why we need to make sure we get all of the information that's in the files because every last one of them who loaded that gun for that young white supremacist needs to be held accountable," he said.

The current statute of limitations for civil litigation is two years from the date of an incident. Connors said the legal team doesn't intend to wait that long and while it would like the wrongful death statute changed first are prepared to move forward without it if necessary.

The bill's sponsors said they will continue to fight for it this session.