State lawmakers returned to Albany after a week-long break and a renewed national debate over gun control. Republican Senators emerged from a closed-door meeting to not rule out taking up new gun control legislation.

"I think that everything has to be on the table," said Sen. Fred Akshar of Endwell. "Protecting our children should not be a partisan issue, and we should be having reasonable and responsible conversations about all of these issues."

That includes legislation to restrict access to guns to people convicted of misdemeanor domestic abuse, which has been proposed by Governor Andrew Cuomo, and tightening other laws for gun ownership.

"As far as gun control, it depends on what you're talking about," said Sen. John DeFrancisco of Syracuse. "If you want to try to eliminate people who have documented and provable mental illnesses who shouldn't have guns, well, obviously that's something we should look at very seriously."

Republicans also want to see funding for school safety, which could include armed resource officers.

"You can talk about hardening a building, or school resource officers or mental health services. All of that needs to be discussed," Akshar said. "I'm proud to be part of this conference, because we had some pretty serious conversations about that."

The normally fractious Democrats in the state Senate appear unified on the issue, holding a joint news conference to push for gun control bills, including a measure that would create a special court order barring people from buying guns if they are proved to be a harm to themselves or others.

"I think it's notable that several of the ideas in this package have not gotten a no from the Republicans in our house," said Sen. Brian Kavanagh (D - Brooklyn).

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie is against bringing in armed guards to schools, but did not rule out additional school security measures.

"I don't know what the Republicans are willing to do," Heastie said. "I'd say over the next couple of weeks, we'll be doing more pieces of legislation around gun control."

Governor Cuomo, meanwhile, has formed a multi-state coalition to crack down on illegal weapons flowing into their states.