Tagged: Gun Control

President Barack Obama delivered his first State of the Union address of his second term in office Tuesday night. He saved an emotional and divisive topic for the end of his speech: gun control.

President Obama referred to Former U.S. Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who attended the speech, and is pushing for Congress to approve gun-control measures. She is recovering from a shooting two years ago in Tucson.

ALBANY – Over 500 people rallied in front of the Governor’s Mansion in Albany on Tuesday calling for the state to reverse its recently adopted state law imposing strict regulations on gun owners.

Hudson Valley Assemblyman Steven Katz (R-14) had an impassioned plea.

“Governor Cuomo, tear up this law,” Katz told the Second Amendment rally in West Capitol Park. Katz’s call was a clear reference to the late President Reagan’s famous demand in 1987 to then Soviet President Gorbachev concerning the Berlin Wall: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”

Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin, who represents parts of Albany, Columbia, Greene and Rensselaer Counties, made the controversial remarks while answering a question about comments that Cuomo acted like a dictator when he expedited the passage of a sweeping package of gun control policy last month using a “message of necessity.”

“When you throw a bill at us in 20 minutes, and we’re told basically to shut up and vote, if that’s not dictatorial, I don’t know what is,” McLaughlin said.