BUFFALO, N.Y. — Gov. Andrew Cuomo says rather than carrying their own firearm, he believes he has an option for New York's teachers concerned about the prevalence of school shootings.

"A teacher should have recourses. We're also talking about teacher safety here," he said.

Cuomo is proposing a law which would allow school employees to petition a judge to restrict a student's access to guns if they believe he or she could be troubled.

"We have to identify the people that shouldn't have firearms and make sure that they don't have firearms and I think this is step forward to doing that," Buffalo Teachers Federation President Phil Rumore said.

Rumore said it could have a tremendous impact in Buffalo schools, where often a simple call to a parent about a troubled student isn't good enough.

"Sometimes parents are in denial and then you have to realize that some of the parents have problems as well," he said. "You have to remember that our kids go into neighborhoods where there are drug dealers out on the streets. Most of our kids have known somebody that was shot or killed that was either a friend or a relative of theirs."

State Sen. Pat Gallivan, R-Elma, said he doesn't support asking teachers to be responsible for reporting their students for the same reason he is not pushing them to carry firearms.

"Teachers are there to teach and that's their role," Gallivan said. "There are plenty of people, individuals, organizations that have responsibility for law enforcement, mental health services and things of that nature and I think that's what we should be enhancing, not putting more on the shoulders of teachers."

Cuomo said earlier this week he wasn't optimistic about the tenuously Republican-controlled Senate supporting the idea.

"The governor says that he's just putting it out there knowing that it will fail. Putting things out for political reasons doesn't make sense to me," Gallivan said.

He said the state should be enhancing and supporting the measures districts already have in place.