Cuomo Throws Down Gun Control Gauntlet For White House Hopefuls

NEW YORK — Gov. Andrew Cuomo laid down a gun-control gauntlet for Democratic presidential candidates Wednesday as the nation grapples with a spate of mass shootings.

The third-term governor called on his party's roughly two dozen White House hopefuls to support four policies modeled on the tough state gun laws he signed six years ago.

Cuomo's litmus test, which he dubbed the "Make America Safer Pledge," includes universal background checks; a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines; preventing gun purchases for mentally ill people; and a "red flag" law barring dangerous individuals from buying firearms.

"If you can't support those four things, I don't believe you should be running for president as a Democrat," Cuomo said Wednesday morning on CNN.

Cuomo's call followed last weekend's massacres in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio that killed 31 people and wounded dozens more, along with recent mass shootings in two Brooklyn neighborhoods.

His proposals mirror New York's SAFE Act, which the state Legislature passed after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre that killed 26 people, including 20 children. The 2013 law broadened the assault weapons ban, established universal background checks, and created a database to prevent dangerously mentally ill people from buying guns.

Cuomo also signed a so-called red flag law earlier this year that allows authorities to seize weapons from people who could harm themselves or others.

The governor argued that Democrats should unify behind a slate of gun reforms to challenge President Donald Trump, whom Cuomo has accused of spewing hateful rhetoric and bowing to the wishes of the gun lobby.

"If the Democrats actually agree to one simple program then we can offer the nation a choice," he said Wednesday. "Otherwise this is all noise and all confusion."

It's uncertain how many presidential candidates will take Cuomo up on his challenge. Spokespeople for Mayor Bill de Blasio and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, the two New York officials in the race, did not immediately comment on the governor's call.

Trump, for his part, has said he supports a red flag law and told reporters Wednesday that he favors keeping guns away from "mentally unstable people or people with rage or hate."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has faced pressure in the wake of the recent shootings to call a vote on bills to expand background checks that the House of Representatives passed in February.

"Fixing this is about fixing our laws," U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Bronx Democrat, said at a Brooklyn vigil on Monday. "It's also about fixing our culture. We're gonna have to go deep."

Patch editor Kathleen Culliton contributed reporting.