New York lawmakers said they started talks about which state policies should be changed next year to reduce the number of teenagers involved in violent gun crimes after 10 people were shot in Albany on the Fourth of July.

Albany Sen. Pat Fahy on Monday spoke with city and state officials about how to address an uptick in gun violence perpetuated by adolescent offenders. She wants to amend parts of the state's Raise the Age law that raised the age of criminal responsibility in the state to 18, and draft legislation to ban the sale of flare guns to New Yorkers under 18 after an increase in minors committing crimes using a flare gun.

"I think we have a loophole in the law, because right now as best we can tell, there's no ban on buying these flare guns for children under 18," Fahy told Spectrum News 1. 

Fahy, a Democrat, said policymakers may also consider increasing the penalty when a flare gun is used to commit a crime.

"... We've worked very aggressively in this state to close as many gun loopholes as possible," she said. "Clearly, there is a new loophole."

Fahy said judges serving the family court Albany have more issues not releasing repeat adolescent offenders that must be improved.

"I think it's the philosophy here...a philosophy on this default to not hold youth at all regardless of whether it's a repeat or horrific offense," the senator added.

The holiday weekend in the capital city turned violent after four people were shot on Madison Avenue minutes after the annual fireworks display at the Empire State Plaza. The altercation occurred between a group of juveniles with one firing a handgun and another firing a flare gun, which struck a residence at 333 Madison Ave., causing a structure fire. The home and a neighboring building were demolished Saturday due to the damage.

Multiple lawmakers said the suspects are juveniles. No one is in custody, according to police.

Earlier in the day, a 17-year-old boy was shot in the foot in North Albany. A group of teenagers fired and shot five people on Livingston Avenue just after 1 a.m. Saturday, Albany police said.

Fahy spoke with city officials and school leaders about making the city safer, including Albany County District Attorney Lee Kindlon — a Democrat who called for lawmakers to change New York's Raise the Age law hours after the violence took place.

Raise the Age stopped 16- and 17-year-olds in the state from being automatically prosecuted as adults. Instead, it created a class of adolescent offenders whose cases often remain in family court and specialized juvenile detention facilities in place of prison.

"Please help us end this cycle of violence," Kindlon told reporters Saturday. "To the politicians who need to fix Raise the Age: Please give us the tools we need to fix Raise the Age to the judges who have the ability to help us. ... This is the moment where you're going to make a difference. This is a moment where we can change things, because nothing's going to change until we do it. Because we are failing our community if we don't use today as an opportunity to change."

Kindlon is exploring a gun diversion court with the state Office of Court Administration, Fahy said, to supplement gun diversion programs in Albany County.

The Albany County DA will be part of ongoing conversations with lawmakers about how the law must be changed, including persistent issues with local governments failing to take advantage of millions of dollars in state funding to implement programming to support Raise the Age.

The state’s 62 counties have used about 40% of more than $1.7 billion allocated since the law was enacted in 2017, according to state comptroller data. New York State Association of Counties Executive Director Stephen Acquario said the current law makes it difficult to take advantage of the funding and implement the law successfully.

"It's structured the wrong way," Acquario said Monday. "The program is done in a pay it up front and chase recovery later. The rules of the state have been burdensome [on localities]. ... It's not just simply saying 'Counties, go do your job.' "

An $800 million fund fell out of this year’s budget to create the Youth Justice Innovation Fund for localities that would work like a community block grant that officials would apply for, removing the complex reimbursement process.

"If the judge chooses to release them, if that child is going back into the community, they should be overwhelmed with an amount of resources, whether it’s academic, social, after school or mental-health related resources," said Assemblywoman Gabriella Romero, an Albany Democrat who worked as a public defender in the city for nearly a decade.

District attorneys like Kindlon support more funding for counties, but also want to make it easier to keep cases in criminal court when necessary.

Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages, who chairs the state's Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus, initially sponsored the bill to create a permanent funding stream for localities, but said she does not support rolling back the main purpose of the law — automatically prosecuting 16- and 17-year-olds as adults.

"We want to really focus on making sure that we have preventative measures for these young people: making sure they have curfews, youth outreach, parent mobilization, because that's the key," Solages said. "Parents have to be involed in this conversation. We want to make sure these young people have a place to go and they have support so they can stay off the streets or not get involved in gang violence."

Lawmakers are expected to have a discussion at the end of the week to decide when they'll return Albany later this year to prepare for less federal funding after President Donald Trump signed a landmark spending bill last week. If lawmakers return, the Legislature is not expected to address any other issues — meaning Raise the Age and other laws won't be changed for at least another year.

A spokesperson with Dorcey Applyrs, Albany's Democratic nominee for mayor, said in a statement that the next likely mayor of the capital city will be having conversations with a variety of stakeholders before deciding if she supports changing Raise the Age.

"Dorcey will be meeting with District Attorney Kindlon, local and statewide law enforcement, children's advocates and mental health professionals to discuss the implications of the Raise the Age law on the Albany community," Applyrs' spokesperson said.