By the way the governor is acting, his signature SAFE Act apparently isn't all that safe after all.

Then again, neither is he, if we are to believe the long trend line of Andrew Cuomo's poll numbers.

These are intertwined, the governor and his SAFE Act. Something I suspect Cuomo never wanted, never envisioned, at least not the way it's played out. And it represents a major issue with sturdy legs that continues to have relevance, to the governor's growing political discomfort, and has become critical for the survival of the Senate Republican majority.

With the benefit of hindsight, it's easy to see in broad outline why this is so. The SAFE Act is an omnibus hodgepodge of ill-thought-out gun control measures thrown together in the wake of the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting massacre. It's only imperative for being was the governor's political agenda. There was no hue and cry from New York law enforcement or the District Attorneys Association for more and better gun laws in the state. New York had in place perfectly adequate gun laws, something that's been blurred by SAFE Act supporters since. Now, could those laws have been tweaked to better effect? Of course. But nothing that sensible happened.

Instead, the governor, at the height of his popularity and power, under the warrant of ''never waste a good tragedy,'' and with a few willing urban partners, famously rammed the SAFE Act through the state Legislature in order to steal a march on the President and other governors. He expected significant gun control including a ban on so-called assault weapons to sweep the nation and he wanted to be way out front. That didn't happen either. Instead he sealed his fate as a national candidate for anything.

In New York it was passed without the participation or, by extension, consent of those it would govern. That has been the major rub ever since and why those repeal signs remain on lawns across upstate in undiminished numbers.

The governor ruthlessly played his knowledge of New York gun cultures to get what he wanted. He played the urban-suburban majority against rural small town like chess pieces. Guns are rightly viewed far differently by these opposite cultures. The governor persuaded those representing the majority his SAFE Act would do just that, make New York safer. They bought it and continue to, even though demonstrably the effect of the various SAFE Act provisions has been next to nothing on crime in the state, whereas the Act has created a range of harassments, impositions and added expenses for legal gun owners and upstate government agencies. It's become symbolic of liberal progress to the majority, though, and so any thought of an outright repeal is highly unlikely, unless it comes from the U.S. Supreme Court. A legal challenge to the SAFE Act will wind up there.

Which brings us back to the governor's long slide in popularity, and the part the SAFE Act played. His slide began when a significant number of New Yorkers pigeonholed and labeled as ''upstaters'' experienced firsthand Cuomo's now infamous transactional style of politics. It was ice water in the face for a huge number of votes. Mostly Republicans, but not exclusively, these had been admirers and supporters of the governor's up to the SAFE Act. But once turned, the governor created a core of enemies who would last, and grow.

First it was gun owners, then it was public employes, public school educators, and blocks of others who have been victimized by this governor. It adds up. He even stuck it to his original urban liberal base.

Cuomo has proved to be a politician with an uncanny knack for poisoning the well at every oasis he visits. Except those where hedge fund managers gather to squat.

While total repeal of the SAFE Act is unlikely any time soon, there will be change. There already has been. Requiring seven-round magazines for semiautomatics has yielded to keeping the old 10-round magazine but only loading seven. Law enforcement has made it abundantly clear this is not a law they'll go out of their way to enforce. The dismal numbers who registered assault style weapons as required by the law prompted Tom King, executive director of the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, to comment that it appears New Yorkers have repealed the law on their own.

Then there's the idiotic, bungled attempt last week by the governor trying to bolster his flagging Republican partners in the Senate, who are hanging on to the majority by a split fingernail. They conspired to create a meaningless proclamation that suspended implementation of a buyer database system for approving all ammunition purchases, as required by the SAFE Act. The problem is, as with the seven-round magazine, such a database system, or even the technology for it, does not currently exist.

By the end of the week, all those who tried to perpetrate this fraud, including the governor and the Senate leadership, looked inept and foolish and did not persuade skeptical ''upstate'' constituents of anything except if this is the best they could do, maybe this crowd running the Senate doesn't have the body parts or the brains to run with the bulls.

Next year, a Presidential election year, is pivotal for control of the state Senate. Without passing meaningful adjustments to the SAFE Act before hand, the Republican majority can kiss control goodbye. A situation they've brought on themselves, with a lot of help — and a kiss — from Uncle Andy.

flebrun@timesunion.com • 454-5453