Elizabeth Ganga

eganga@lohud.com

Rob Astorino's never been a big fan of the SAFE Act.

But last year, when he was running for re-election as county executive in Democratic Westchester, his criticism of the state's recent gun-control law was muted. He focused mostly on the legislative maneuvers used to enact the law with little debate. And he largely ignored his opponents' efforts to make guns a campaign issue.

But now that he's running for governor against the author of the SAFE Act, which banned certain assault weapons and required registration of the ones already privately owned, he's been turning up at gun shows and rifle clubs and talking about the erosion of fundamental freedoms. He also chose a well-known opponent of the act as his running mate, Chemung County Sheriff Christopher Moss.

The "Astorino Truth Squad," the Westchester Democratic Committee's tool for attacking Astorino, called him out for attending a gun rally in April that the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association refused to take part in.

"The SAFE Act made no one safer in New York," Astorino said at a New Yorker's Family Research Foundation event in Albany in March. "All it did was make criminals out of law-abiding citizens."

Astorino, not a gun owner himself, is still taking care to target the message. His language is more strident upstate where gun rights are likely to find a more sympathetic audience and where there have been frequent angry protests against Gov. Andrew Cuomo over the law. Taxes and the Common Core education standards are on the agenda in the New York City suburbs.

Jeanne Zaino, a professor of political science at Iona College, said Astorino understands that he must appeal to different constituencies: He knows pushing the gun issue wouldn't have worked in Westchester but upstate he needs something to differentiate himself from Cuomo.

"Astorino is taking seriously that he needs to get his base out if he has any hope of getting over 40 percent," Zaino said.

A Siena Research Institute poll released March 24 found that New Yorkers support the SAFE Act almost 2-1 but the numbers shift in different parts of the state. More than three-quarters of New York City voters support the law, as do almost two-thirds of downstate suburban voters. A slim majority of upstate voters oppose the act. A majority of Republicans oppose it.

Astorino also has targeted pistol-permit holders with a fundraising appeal letter focusing on an interactive map of Westchester and Rockland permit holders posted online by The Journal News on Dec. 23, 2012, after the Sandy Hook school massacre.

"Thousands of law abiding pistol permit owners in (Westchester County) were treated like sex offenders and put at risk of home break ins through the stunt, which clearly emanated from Andrew Cuomo's anti-Second Amendment hysteria in Albany," the letter said.

The Journal News examined the reports of home break-ins in the months after the map was published and found only a handful of firearms were stolen. In those cases, police said they found no links between the burglaries and the map.

Astorino said in the letter that he was the elected official who "above all others stood up for the rights of permit holders," though his call for the newspaper to take down the map lagged by weeks those of many other officials and the initial denial of the permit information by the Putnam County clerk, Dennis Sant. Astorino maintained that in doing so he was criticizing the editors of his local paper, "but it was the right thing to do."

Under New York's Freedom of Information Law, lists of names and addresses obtained through FOIL may not be used for fundraising. The Astorino campaign said it got the permit-holders' names from a company that sells voter lists, but did not identify that group.Some news reports have suggested that the National Rifle Association has compiled a nationwide list of gun owners through pistol licenses and other sources. The group did not respond to a request for comment.

Astorino's take on the SAFE Act was very different a year ago as he was setting up his county executive campaign. Shortly after it was enacted, Astorino said there were some "interesting things and important things that were done," including mental health background checks.

"I think overall they did some good," he said.

He questioned the effectiveness of limiting ammunition magazines to seven rounds, given that they could be changed quickly.

"Some of that might be cosmetic and some of it is very real in what they did and they should be applauded," Astorino said.

Astorino did criticize the lack of debate and prefaced his remarks by saying he still was examining the new law.

But in a recent interview, Astorino said the law sidestepped the mental health issue, made law-abiding citizens into law breakers and will not make anyone safer.

"A bad law is a bad law, period," he said. "The process was terrible where the public had no input."

Westchester, by contrast, is addressing the mental health causes of violence and looking at issues like school security, he said. Through a project called the Safer Communities Initiative, the county has set up conferences to share ideas and created a network of agencies to develop recommendations and list resources for communities. Instead of looking only at mass shootings, the initiative is focusing on things like gang violence, domestic violence, mental health and bullying.

"Violence is being treated as a disease by the county," Astorino said.

Twitter: @eganga