Hochul rolls back big guns in bag searches

— Gov. Kathy Hochul has pulled back the big guns in her subway safety surge, ordering the National Guard not to carry military-grade assault rifles when they check riders’ bags for weapons.

Many of the 750 troops Hochul deployed Wednesday to check riders’ backpacks hauling laptops or school books or bags carrying groceries carried M4 carbines, military assault rifles whose 5.56mm rounds can defeat some body armor.

Unlike their civilian counterpart, the AR-15, the M4s are capable of automatic fire.

After a flurry of news coverage showing the rifle-carrying Guard members checking straphangers’ totes at Grand Central and Penn Station, the governor ordered the troops to carry out their work without their large guns. A Hochul spokesperson told the Daily News the order was issued “immediately after the deployment” of the Guard for bag checks.

Hochul’s order to stow the long guns followed photos on news sites and social media showing well-armed soldiers checking riders’ property. It also came amid concern from civil libertarians that the governor’s subway safely plan is militarizing public transit.

The order took time to implement — soldiers were seen carrying the rifles well into Thursday.

But by Friday evening rush hour not a single long gun was visible among the dozen soldiers and law enforcement officers at the entrance to the No. 4, 5, 6 and 7 trains below Grand Central Terminal.

At Penn Station, a mass of law enforcement officers and Guard members stood near the entrance to the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 trains, all wearing only sidearms.

A few hundred feet away in the Long Island Rail Road concourse, two Guard members stood before a storefront. One carried an M4.

“We’re with Empire Shield, but we’re supporting the bag checking,” said the Guard member with the rifle. Joint Task Force Empire Shield is a long-running task force that regularly deploys National Guard members to transit hubs.

The Guard member acknowledged that the longguns had been banished from the bag-check areas. “That’s why we’re standing far way from them,” he said.

Whether they carried rifles or not, the Guard soldiers’ presence in the subway system concerned some.

“No matter what weapons they’re carrying, a Guardsman is still a Guardsman,” said Albert Fox Cahn, founder of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project.

“It’s incredibly irresponsible and a chilling symbol,” said Cahn, adding that he worried about “the normalization of militarized tactics” in the transit system.

Donna Lieberman, head of the New York Civil Liberties Union, agreed.

“Treating our public transit system like a war zone is an unnecessary overreaction based on fear, not facts,” she said in a statement.

“Deploying military personnel to the subways will not make New Yorkers feel safe,” she said “It will, unfortunately, create a perfect storm for tension, escalation and further criminalization of Black and Brown New Yorkers.”