Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in Albany on Wednesday. What's crucial, he said, is "the number of bullets, not the size of the magazine."
But after weeks of criticism from gun owners, Mr. Cuomo said on Wednesday that he would seek to ease the restriction, which he said had proved unworkable even before it was scheduled to take effect on April 15.
The gun-control law, approved in January, banned the sale of magazines that hold more than seven rounds of ammunition. But, Mr. Cuomo said Wednesday, seven-round magazines are not widely manufactured. And, although the new gun law provided an exemption for the use of 10-round magazines at firing ranges and competitions, it did not provide a legal way for gun owners to purchase such magazines.
As a result, he said, he and legislative leaders were negotiating language that would continue to allow the sale of magazines holding up to 10 rounds, but still forbid New Yorkers from loading more than 7 rounds into those magazines.
"There is no such thing as a seven-bullet magazine," Mr. Cuomo said at a news conference. "That doesn't exist. So you really have no practical option."
The development came as the governor and the legislative leaders announced Wednesday night that they had reached a tentative agreement on the state budget for the fiscal year that begins on April 1, though they released few details. The leaders have agreed to increase the state's minimum wage to $9 an hour by 2016 and to allow municipalities to defer some of their pension costs into the future.
The deal also includes an extension of a higher tax bracket for the state's top earners, paired with a package of middle-class and business tax cuts.
"You can't bring down all the taxes," the governor said Wednesday night, adding, "Some taxes go up, some taxes go down."
Kathryn S. Wylde, the chief executive of the Partnership for New York City, a leading business trade group, expressed concern, saying that "raising taxes on the people who contribute most to the state's economy and revenues is not the right message to send to businesses looking to grow and invest in New York."
Several contentious issues are still being negotiated, including a plan to reduce low-level marijuana arrests stemming from police stops in New York City. The governor and his staff also said that a final figure had not been reached for cuts to the State Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, though they will not be as steep as what the governor originally proposed.
But the decision to change the gun magazine restriction overshadowed the budget announcement.
Even after allowing the sale of 10-round magazines, New York's law would still be among the strongest in the country. Only three other states — California, Hawaii and Massachusetts — and the District of Columbia have a 10-round magazine limit, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
Limits on magazines remain a major goal of advocates of gun control — on Wednesday, Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado signed into law a ban in that state on magazines that hold more than 15 rounds.
Gun control advocates were divided over the modification to the new legislation.
Assemblywoman Michelle Schimel, a Long Island Democrat and a chairwoman of the New York chapter of State Legislators Against Illegal Guns, noted that key portions of the law — like an expanded ban on assault weapons — were not being changed.
"This is still a robust bill," she said, calling it "still a model for the rest of the country, without a doubt."
But Richard M. Aborn, the president of the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City, described the concerns from gun owners about a scarcity of seven-round magazines as "a manufactured crisis."
"I think the governor and the Legislature got it right the first time," Mr. Aborn said, adding, "We don't want to have to tell the mother of a young man who's just been shot and killed that he was killed with the ninth bullet."
Gun rights advocates had complained that seven-round magazines were not widely available.
The magazine restriction "was probably going to be a de facto handgun ban in New York," said Jake McGuigan, who directs state affairs for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a firearms industry trade group.
Gun rights advocates continue to believe the entire gun-control package should be repealed. Stephen J. Aldstadt, president of the Shooters Committee on Political Education, a New York group, described the amendment as "the most asinine thing I've ever heard."
"Any person who is going to go commit a mass shooting like Columbine or Sandy Hook is certainly not going to pay attention to a law restricting magazines to seven rounds," he said. "The only people who would possibly obey that law are legal gun owners, and they're not your problem."
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