On October 2 New York Governor Andrew Cuomo reiterated his call for Democrats to shut down government in order to force Republicans to support gun control.
Cuomo first issued this demand on September 26 while speaking at the funeral of ex-aide Carey Gabay, who was shot and fatally wounded in one of the numerous shootings surrounding the Labor Day J’Ouvert celebration in Brooklyn.
The New York Daily News quoted Cuomo saying:
If the far right is willing to shut down the government because they don’t get a tax cut for the rich, then our people should have the same resolve and threaten to shut down the government if they don’t get a real gun control law to stop killing of their innocents.
Cuomo doubled down on this demand following the heinous October 1 attack on innocents at Umpqua Community College, saying, “I’d love to see the Democrats stand up and say, ‘We’re going to shut down the federal government or threaten to shut down the government if we don’t get real gun control legislation,’”
According to The Hill, Cuomo stressed that this government shut down for gun control ought to be a “high priority.”
He added:
I would like to see Hillary and the vice president and whoever else is in the race from both parties talk about the issue of guns. Rather than the political blather that is now going on, let’s put some real issues on the agenda and let’s put at the top: What are you doing to about guns? Let’s have that be one of the top priorities.
Cuomo signed the SAFE Act gun control package into law in January 2013. Through it, he and his fellow New York Democrats banned “high capacity” ammunition magazines and “assault weapons” while implementing universal background checks and firearm registration. Although these gun controls were passed with pledges to make New Yorkers safer, firearm-related homicides are surging in NYC–the shooting death of Carey Gabay is a case in point.
Yet Cuomo says his gun control push has not failed. Rather, he says Congress undercut him by not putting similar laws in place on the federal level.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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