Gov is gunning for gun runners to NY

Go back home and sell your weapons of mass destruction back in Tennessee and Georgia . . . Don’t come to New York, because we’re going to catch you.

— Gov. Kathy Hochul at the Rehoboth Open

Bible Church in Brooklyn on Sunday

Gov. Hochul on Sunday touted her recent efforts to crack down on illegal firearms, warning gun-traffickers, “Don’t come to New York.”

During an address at Rehoboth Open Bible Church in Brooklyn, the governor vowed to continue to push for stricter gun-control laws while noting that she is using State Police to bust people who bring illegal firearms into the Empire State.

“I will continue my fight calling for laws to ban these weapons, regulate them. But until that time, I have my State Police out there watching the borders, because [illegal weapons are] coming over,” she told the roughly 50 parishioners.

“Before it gets to our streets, we’re stopping the bad guys at the border, saying, ‘Go back home and sell your weapons of mass destruction back in Tennessee and Georgia and even Pennsylvania,’ ” she claimed. “‘Don’t come to New York, because we’re going to catch you.’ ”

Hochul announced in her January State of the State address that she was forming a task force targeting illegal guns. The group includes representatives from the NYPD, the state Attorney General’s Office, federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and police in nearby states.

The agency met for the first time in January, after two NYPD cops were killed with a stolen firearm.

In response to this month’s massacre at a supermarket in Buffalo — where 10 people were killed, allegedly by Payton Gendron, 18 — Hochul also unveiled a package of legislative measures and executive orders designed to tighten state gun laws. The bundle includes increasing social-media monitoring by law enforcement and directing State Police to more aggressively seize guns from potential shooters under the state’s so-called Red Flag Law.

The day after Tuesday’s Texas school massacre, Hochul also called on state lawmakers to pass legislation that would ban the sale of AR-15-style rifles to people under 21.

The teenage shooters in Buffalo and Texas both used such guns, authorities have said.

‘Demand gun control’

Meanwhile, ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo again made a case for stricter gun regulations at another church in Brooklyn on Sunday.

“Let us seize this moment, let us take our outrage and pain and channel it into a positive force,” he told congregants at the Christian Cultural Center. “Let us demand common-sense gun control.”

The speech marked Cuomo’s fourth public appearance since resigning under threat of impeachment in August after several women made sexual-harassment allegations against him.

While Cuomo also has released campaign-style TV advertisements, it was revealed in April that he has opted not to run in the Democratic gubernatorial primary against Hochul.

If he wants to run for governor as an independent, he is running out of time; Cuomo would need to deliver 45,000 petition signatures by the Tuesday deadline.

When asked Sunday if he will attempt a comeback, Cuomo sidestepped the question.

“Today is not about politics; today is about focusing on this issue,” he told a group of reporters after his church address.