Nearly 150 people gathered in Cheektowaga Tuesday to hear from Republican gubernatorial candidate Marc Molinaro offer his positions on a handful of issues of importance to voters.

The crowd at the VFW Leonard Post was a generally friendly audience, which didn’t come as a surprise since the Erie County Republican Committee hosted the event.

Molinaro answered questions from the crowd for more than an hour, addressing issues ranging from job loss in New York State to school testing, infrastructure and sanctuary cities.

And in a county where repeal SAFE Acts signs are still prevalent in the rural areas, there were several questions about Second Amendment rights.

Molinaro says he’ll staunchly defend them but did not explicitly say he would repeal the oft-criticized law. Instead he talked about working with the legislature to get results over rhetoric.

“I will not, I will not force the state Legislature to take action on legislation unless it’s had the time to consider the public’s opinion and the reason I say that is this governor has said on more than one occasion that he needs to bend the rules on a message of necessity,” he said.

While the audience was generally Republican, the candidate talked about welcoming all points of view and said we all need to start respecting each other a little bit more.