New York State’s gubernatorial primary is less than four weeks away, so the Syracuse area can expect to see the candidates make campaign stops as they crisscross the state. Wednesday, Republican Andrew Giuliani paid a visit to outline his plan to address a sharp increase in crime rates. He’s proposing an additional $5 billion to fund police statewide, to ensure they have what they need. Giuliani wonders if it would have made a difference in the Buffalo supermarket shooting where ten African Americans were killed in a racist attack.
"New York state police had this guy nearly a year ago, when he was 17 years old saying he was going to shoot up his school. Did our state police have the resources necessary to detain this guy? Obviously a madman like this should not have access to a gun, our red flag laws that are on the books, they failed in that circumstance to actually prevent him from getting a weapon."
Giuliani says the state’s legislation raising the age to buy an assault-style rifle to 21 and any other gun control measures aren’t the solution.
He also says schools need more armed officers to prevent school shootings like the massacre in Texas. Giuliani it can be similar to the air marshal program.
"That way, we can have people in each school that are trained by law enforcement. Maybe it's former law enforcement, maybe it's current law enforcement. That way you have somebody on site ready to go in case there is an active shooter situation. What that's going to do, it's going to actually prevent many of these active shooter situations."
That’s not what happened in Uvalde, Texas, where an assigned school resource officer never confronted the gunman before or after he entered the school and killed 19 children and two teachers.
Giuliani says his father, Rudolph Giuliani, has played a big role in his anti-crime plan. The younger Giuliani credits his father’s success in slashing New York City’s murder rate as mayor in the 1990’s.
"I'd be foolish if I didn't use a resource like that to the best of my ability. So certainly from a crime perspective, he has been involved and, and he'll continue to be involved."
Lately, Rudy Giuliani has faced significant legal problems following his time serving as President Trump’s lawyer, as well as questions about his role leading up to the January 6th insurrection. He was also captured on video shouting insults at a parade attendee in New York City.
Andrew Giuliani is among at least eight republicans seeking the nomination for governor. Congressmember Lee Zeldin is the party’s designee. Others include Harry Wilson, who stopped in Syracuse in late April to present his plan to fight crime. The gubernatorial primary is June 28th.
