Op-Ed By Democratic Conference Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins At the beginning of the 2013 Legislative Session, the NY SAFE Act

was passed through the State Senate and Assembly and signed into law by Governor Cuomo. This legislation was part of the Governors and the Legislatures efforts to address the epidemic of gun violence plaguing our state and nation, and the Senate Democratic Conference was proud to stand unanimously in support. For years, the Senate Democratic Conference has called for common sense gun laws that would protect the public while at the same time protecting the second amendment. At Thursdays anti-NY SAFE Act rally at the State Capitol statements made by Republican lawmakers reached new heights in demonstrating how out of touch the Senate Republican Conference has become. The latest polls show that 70% New Yorkers support the SAFE-Act and its common sense solutions to the gun violence that this country is facing. While the anti-gun control advocates have painted this legislation as extreme, they fail to recognize that this set of bills, including the assault weapon ban, is similar in many ways to previous legislation including the assault weapons ban long supported by both Democrats and Republicans and signed into law by Governor Pataki. Senate Republicans criticized the Governor for issuing a message of necessity for the passage of the NY SAFE-Act. These Republican Senators know that simply because the Governor provided a message of necessity, there is nothing that requires or binds the Legislature to vote or approve any measure; it simply authorizes the Legislature to take up the matter if they choose to do so. Case in point, in 2004 former Governor Pataki issued 84 messages of necessity, yet 11 were not acted on by the Legislature including the Republican dominated Senate. On Thursday, in the shadows of our Capitol, Republican Senators pandered to a vocal minority in a manner that was duplicitous at best, hypocritical at worst. If these lawmakers are truly outraged by the passage of the NY SAFE-Act with a message of necessity, then perhaps these same Senators should focus their condemnation on themselves because they accepted the message of necessity. The facts are that this legislation was necessary. We have seen an increase in violent gun-related crimes in New York and throughout this nation. Last year in the United States, 137 people were killed or injured in mass shootings. In New York City alone there were over 1000 shootings. We in New York knew we had to act and the majority of New Yorkers support our action.